


Ninjago: Twist In Fate: Kai's Journey

by Zingzang14



Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-27
Updated: 2018-04-29
Packaged: 2018-08-27 09:53:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 44
Words: 42,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8397076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zingzang14/pseuds/Zingzang14
Summary: In the Final Battle, the Green Ninja lost and Ninjago was taken over by the Overlord. Kai manged to escape with Misako, Sensei Wu and Dr. Julien. This is the story of what happened during the 4 years of Lloyd being gone. Rated because of character death & injuries.





	1. The Final Battle (Kai's POV)

I had thought that Lloyd getting thrown halfway across an island and getting his leg hurt, the Overlord crossing into this world, finding out that my sister had been turned evil as well as my best friends would be the worst part of today, but as it turns out that was actually the best part. We had all known our jobs and for the most part we succeeded. But the final battle was something that we hadn't been as ready for as we thought.

(During the Battle)

I faced my sister who was riding some sort of machine. She began to shoot dark matter at us. I pulled out my sword and started to deflect it. Looking at Lloyd I could tell he was scared though he didn't show it, but there wasn't much I could do. _He needs to stop the Overlord._ "I'm going to draw her fire so you can make It to the top." I told him then advanced forward.

"No don't we can do this together." he replied his voice shaking a little.

"No,"I stated after swinging my sword again. _As much as I would like to get credit for saving the world..._ "There is only one Green Ninja, this is your fight." I knew Lloyd was the only one who could defeat the Overlord and he knew it to.

Lloyd was able to get around the corner and up more stairs. I tried to keep Nya distracted but she saw him. _I need to think of something fast._

"Your hurt!" She told Lloyd. Her voice, which was once nice and soothing, was now cold and evil. "You hardly stand a chance!"

Nya, I hope you forgive me for this. I jumped forward. "Hiya!" and broke the machine with my sword. Lloyd turned around. _What is he waiting for?_ "Go Lloyd!" He nodded and started up the stairs again.

I turned my attention back to Nya Who was coming at me with a dark black sword. She striked, I dodged. I striked, She dodged. I had to admit she had gotten better at sword fighting.

My sister smirked, "The Overlord is unbeatable. It is a shame You won't live to see the world after he takes full control. You never stood a chance!"

_Remember she isn't herself. she is under the Overlord's control._

A flash of gold emanated from the top of the building. No, it was coming from Lloyd! His green ninja outfit was now gold and light seemed to be flowing off him. Nya charged at me again and I blocked it with my sword before it made contact with my head. Ok she has gotten way better since the battle with the skeletons. I knocked the sword out of her hands, she growled and kicked me in the chest, making me drop my sword. She pined me against the wall. Just then a gold dragon dived off the building and circled around back up carrying a dark dragon with it.

"Save your self the trouble, ninja! And just give up!" Nya said mockingly.

"Never!" I retorted. "I'm a ninja and ninja never give up!"

She looked down the stairs and turned back to me, smirking. "They did."

I turned and saw that Cole, Jay, and even Zane were now evil and coming up the stairs swords drawn. _Oh come on!_ I pushed Nya away and grabbed my sword. A black cloud covered the sky and loud laughter echoed through the air. I saw a flash of light and something falling from the sky into the city. _Oh no_. All of a sudden my arm started to burn.

"Ahg!"I clutched my left arm, looked in the direction of the impact and saw a spiky blue sword. I need to get out of here!

I back flipped over my friends and rushed down the stairs. The footsteps and growls behind me told me that they were still after me. A huge rock, or something like that, smashed the stairs in front of me and I was left with 3 choices: 1. Confront the other ninja. 2. Surrender _Not happening._ and 3. Jump and hope for the best. I lifted my right hand and the glove was tinted red. _If I try to battle them then chances are I'll lose with the condition I'm in._ I looked over the edge, there was still 5 or 6 more floors left. I's still a long way down. I could probably do spinjitsu to soften the landing. I turned around, Nya and the others were coming down the last set of stairs and fast. With nothing else to do and the pain in my arm making it hard to think, I decided to jump.

"NINJAGO!" I yelled making a tornado of fire surround me. It didn't last long though. I wobbled and stopped spinning several feet from the ground. When I made impact, I slid and rolled, like a stone skipping over a lake. The main reason it hurt was that I landed almost directly on my bad arm. I heard a sickening crack coming from it. Trying not to scream, I got to my feet, took half a step forward and collapsed to the ground when pain shot up my left leg. Great so not only do I have a broken arm but a sprained ankle to?

A few feet in front of me I saw the Ultra Dragon land. Sensei Wu, Misako, and Dr. Julien (Zane's dad) Jumped off and came over to me.

"Kai are you alright... what happened!?" Dr. Julien asked. "Your arm looks terrible!" He took a closer look to check it.

"L...like I didn't n...notice before." I winced as he wrapped some cloth around my wounded arm.

"That should help till we can bandage it properly." he said as he finished.

"Th...thanks."

"We need to find a place to rest and get you healed." Sensei said. "Can you walk?"

"I th...think so." I tried to get to my feet but promptly fell down again. Wincing I replied "Maybe not."

"Here, let's get you on the dragon." Misako said. Slowly her and Sensei helped me up and put me in a seat on the dragon. We took off and I looked back at the skyscraper. _I can't believe we failed._ We landed at the dojo and they helped me down.


	2. I Can't Believe We Lost

"Hey everyone look! They are back!" Dareth addressed the people behind him. He took one look at my arm and passed out.

We passed everyone on our way down the hall without saying a word. We went into a bedroom where I was told to sit down on the bed as I waited for Sensei Wu to come back in with the first aid kit. When he had returned he instructed me to remove my top so Dr. Julien could treat the wound in my arm properly.

I did so with a little difficulty. "I think it may be broken and my left ankle is throbbing like crazy."

He stitched up the gash in my arm and it did turn out to be broken, so they reset and braced it. My ankle was sprained badly and they wrapped it up as well.

"That should do it." Zane's dad said when he was done. "It will take a little while for the bones to mend but you will be fine."

"Do you know where Lloyd is?" Misako asked.

"I saw something fall out of the sky into the center of the city..." I paused. _That could have been Lloyd!_ I stood up quickly but lost my balance and fell back.

"You need to rest. Your arm and leg won't heal fast if you don't." Sensei Wu replied.

"But what about Lloyd?" I said. "He needs help if we don't find him soon he could-"

"If you can get to the other side of this room and back with out falling then you may come. If not, you will stay here while Misako and I search for Lloyd."

I looked across the room. It had to be about three yards away. I stood up and put my right arm out for balance. The room wasn't that big, he had to be joking. I stepped on my left foot, which was a bad idea because within seconds I fell back on the bed my leg throbbing.

I glared at Sensei. "You knew that would happen, didn't you?"

"I simply told you that if you made it to the other side of the room you could come." he replied. "But yes I did."

"You two didn't see where he landed. " I retorted. "I did."

Sensei shook his head slowly. "Your staying here Kai. We can find him on our own." He turned to the door. I was about to get up and follow.

"It really is best that you stay." Misako said. "You could get injured again or worse."

I sighed. "Fine." If I had tried any further they might have tied me up, it has happened before.

"We will be back in a few hours." she said. "Try to get some sleep." I nodded and they left.

"I'm going to check on Dareth. He passed out earlier." Dr. Julien said and left the room.

The pain in my leg had gone down to a dull throbbing. _Might as well get some sleep. It's not like anything is going to happen any time soon._ I laid down, closed my eyes and just like that I was out.


	3. I Can't Believe We Lost

It was so dark my body didn't cast a shadow. The buildings around me were collapsing like dominoes into piles of rock. Lightning flashed rapidly and thunder followed every strike. I was panting heavily, my arm bounced around in the sling and my ankle was throbbing like crazy due to the running. The footsteps behind me increased and I knew it was not good. Taking a risk I glanced over my solder and saw the other ninja. Their eyes were purple and their clothes and skin were now tinted dark purple/gray but I could still tell who was who.

Laughter filled the air. "You can't run forever Kai! Running won't do you any good!" the Overlords voice echoed throughout the city. "No matter where you go, you won't escape!"

I kept moving and didn't look back. The only thought in my mind was to get away. Jay's sword nearly cut my arm off and I was in no condition to fight them. Suddenly a huge stone wall shot up from the ground, blocking my path. It was to tall and smooth to climb even if I could. I turned to the left and a new wall materialized. I spun around and a similar wall appeared on the right. I was at a dead-end. I turned around and saw the other ninja waiting for me to make the wrong move. If that happened I would be dead meat.

"Look at him." Cole said evilly. "He's weak!"

"No wonder he found his true potential last!" Jay laughed.

"He could not have found it sooner if someone gave him step by step instructions!" Zane added.

"My friends wouldn't say that!" I said clenching my right hand into a fist.

"Believe it or not we've all been thinking it," Jay stated and others nodded.

"The dark matter only enhances your dark thoughts, it doesn't usually make new ones." Zane noted.

I glared back. "I could defeat all of you with one hand tied behind my back!"

They looked at each other than back to me and started to laugh.

"You might as well put your leg behind your back to!" Jay mocked.

_Now their going to get it!_ I took a step forward and the ground gave way under me. I grabbed onto the edge with my good arm before falling in. The laughter became louder, the piece of rock I hanging from broke off and I fell into a bottomless pit.


	4. Getting Out of The Dojo

The air around me became colder as the laughter grew louder. I looked for something to hold on to but just kept falling. Blinking a few times I still found my self in the bottomless pit. _This can't be happening._ I closed my eyes tightly. My eyes flew open, I sat up quickly and looked around. Brown stone walls, a wooden desk, a chair by a wall and bed underneath me. I was still in the dojo. A wave of relief flowed over me. Dr. Julien ran into the room.

"I heard yelling is everything ok?" he asked, the worry in his voice was clear.

I stared at the wall. "Ya, I'm good." I yawned. "How long was I out?"

"Around an hour and a half." he walked over. "I'm going to check your arm to make sure you didn't reopen the wound."

"Have Sensei and Misako come back yet?" I asked.

Still looking at my arm he replied, "No, not yet."

_If they can't find Lloyd it's their fault but, where could they be?_

"Your arm doesn't look any worse, so that is good." Dr. Julien then proceeded to look at my ankle, I winced a little when he touched it. "I'd say your lucky it wasn't as bad as Lloyd's leg. That wouldn't have been very comfortable to deal with." he stepped back.

"Lloyd is a strong kid." I said. _He better be ok._ "I'm going to go look for them." I stood up.

"Kai, I'm sure they are fine. You need your rest." Dr. Julien replied.

I took a few steps forward, wincing when I stepped down on my left foot. "They would have been back by now." I retorted.

"They will find Lloyd, don't worry."

"If I had gone with them , they would have found him by now."

"Your injured Kai, you need to heal before you can fight." he said calmly.

"Lloyd could be in danger right now." I shook my head. "I'm going and you can't stop me."

"I can see that," Dr. Julien sighed. "but someone needs to go with you."

_I'm not asking for permission._ "Let's go then."

"I'm not going," he replied. _Yes!_ "Dareth will." _No!_

"You have got to be joking." I said in a monotone voice. "I'm going to end up saving him at least 50 times while we are out there!"

"Either you both go or you stay here," he said. "and I think you won't get far without help."

"Watch me." I made my way to the wall and followed it out of the room. "See, I can handle walking around the city."

"First of all, you're going to make your ankle worse. Second, if your being chased by stone soldiers or perhaps the other ninja, what will you do then?" Dr. Juilien asked.

"Use spinjitzu."

"Your spinjitzu is weakened by your injuries."

"I'm still going." I stated and hopped forward a little.

"Look Ed, Kai is awake." I turned my head and saw Jay's parents.

"Your right Edna." Ed replied. "How are you doing Kai? We heard you broke your arm and ankle."

"My ankle is just badly sprained but it's true. Right now I'm trying to convince Dr. Julien that I can go and look for Sensei on my own." I said.

"Shouldn't you be resting?" Edna asked gently.

"I feel like I've been sleeping all day." I lied. _If I have another dream like that I might be awake for a while._

"If you say so." she said. "You haven't seen Jay around have you?"

"Not since the battle earlier, sorry." I replied. _Last time I saw him in person he nearly cut off my arm._

They looked at each other worriedly. "I hope that he is ok." Ed said. "Thank you for telling us." and they walked a way.

I turned to continue my conversation with Zane's dad but he wasn't there. _I can finally get out of here._ I leaned against the wall on my right and limped to the doorway of the next room. There were groups of people, sitting down or standing, in the main room of the dojo. Some people I knew and others I didn't. A thin path went through the center of the room. _Just my luck._

Cole's father walked up to me. "Hello Kai, I haven't seen you since the race."

"We have been really busy lately," I replied. "fighting stone soldiers has taken up most of our time."

"I didn't see Cole with you, is he alright?" he asked.

I thought about just telling him what happened and that Cole was now under the Overlord's control but, he probably wouldn't have taken it very well. "I was just heading out to find Lloyd and Sensei Wu. As far as I know Cole is ok."

"Don't you think going out there, where hundreds of stone soldiers are, in your condition is dangerous?"

"Dareth has control of the army, I think I'll manage."

"Ok then. If you see Cole around, please let me know." he said.

_Next time I see Cole I'm going to end up battling him._ "I will keep an eye out." I replied.

"Thank you Kai." Cole's father said and left to sit with his group.

I looked ahead and the door seemed closer. _Finally._ I took a couple of steps forward but, stopped when I heard Dareth's voice behind me.

"Hey Dr. Julien I found him!" he yelled. "Kai wait up!"

All eyes landed on me. _Just great_. I limped back into the hall where Dareth and Dr. Julien were now standing. Dareth still had the helmet that controlled the army and Zane's dad was holding some fabric in one hand and a crutch in the other.

"Your going to need these." he said and handed me the crutch.

"What's the cloth for?" I asked.

"A sling, I doubt you can keep your arm up forever and this should keep your arm out of the way when you need to fight." he replied as he wrapped it around my arm and tied it off behind my neck. "That should work. How does it feel?"

All in all I just wanted to get out of the dojo for a while. I looked down at the sling, the first thought that came to my mind was my dream. _Flash to dream: The other ninja, running, laughter, cornered, bottomless pit, falling...falling...falling..._ I must have zoned out because Dareth was waving his hand in front of my face.

"Kai are you ok?"

I blinked. "Ya I'm fine. The sling helps thanks Dr. Julien. Can we go now?"

"You two need to be careful out there and be back within two hours," Dr. Julien said. "If your gone longer I will send someone to find you."

_I'm not a little kid!_ "Fine." I replied.

"Ok then, see you two in a couple hours." he said and walked away.

I turned to Dareth. "Let's get moving."


	5. The City

**(** 9 minutes later **)**

For future reference, never go somewhere with Dareth. Everyone had thought that Jay was overly talkative as it turns out, Dareth was 10 times worse. First, he talked about how he got different trophies for coming up with new "ninja moves". Then, how he got the dojo and what it was like before we met him, apparently it used to be a place that sold cosmetics. After that, he continued to talk, and talk, and talk. If I was able to cover my ears without dropping the crutch or my arm exploding with pain, I would have 8 minutes and 59 seconds ago. For the most part I tried to tune him out the best I could. It was strangely quite, besides Dareth's constant blabbering. The sky had become dark gray, almost as if the were midnight and the moon wasn't out. Lightning caused most of the light around us and the thunder made the ground shake a little. I looked around and saw the fortress of the Overlord. You better hope I can find Lloyd and that he is ok. Calculations are more Zane's thing but I did my best to find the angle of where he could have landed. I turned to Dareth to find that he was still talking! So I decided to put a stop to it.

Covered his mouth with my right hand and asked, "Can you hear that?" _Cliché, I know._

He listened and moved my hand. "Hear what?" _Look who's cliché now!_

_How nice it sounds when it is quiet!_ Is what I wanted to say but instead I said, "Never mind."

"Ok then." Dareth replied and we continued to walk. "Now, as I was saying... bla bla bla bla bla..."

I rolled may eyes and continued to to scan our surroundings. Most of the buildings were three stories high but there were a few taller ones as well. There were a few leafless trees lining both sides of the road. We have only sees two cars on the street so far. I knew we were close to finding Lloyd, but I couldn't see him anywhere.

**(To the other ninja, evil Zane's POV)**

"It appears as if Kai is looking for Lloyd." I smirked and continued to watch them from the sky.

Somehow, the falcon had been turned evil. I sent it out to look for Kai or Sensei Wu. The others laughed when I told them about Kai's condition and I joined them. Jay noted that Kai must have been crazy to jump off a building. None of us felt pity for him though, not even Nya.

"I thought you said that he was injured." Cole stated.

"He is. By the looks of it he has a broken arm and possibly sprained ankle." I noted.

"Go inform the Overlord of what you found." Nya said. "I'm sure he will be pleased."

I nodded and left the room. The skyscraper had many halls, I came to a large door and entered slowly. The stone walls were black and purple torches supplied the only light. On the other side of the room, a huge purple-black dragon was sitting on a thrown, the Overlord. I bowed.

"My falcon has found Kai in the company of Dareth," I said. "The ninja has a broken arm and possibly a sprained ankle."

"In what part of my city was he?" the Overlord questioned.

"3-4 miles north-east from here."

The Overlord dropped his head so was face to face with me. "I have a little message for you to bring to the fire ninja." he smirked.

I smiled evilly. "What do you wish for me to do, master."

(Back to Kai, 25 minutes later)

"Are we lost?" Dareth asked while looking around.

"No, we are not lost," I replied. "The other ninja and I have battled serpentine in this part of the city in season one."

"'Season one', what are you talking about?" he asked.

"It doesn't matter."

Just then, something dark and trailing purple smoke, came out of nowhere and plucked the helmet off of Dareth's head.

"Hey! Get back here with that!" he yelled loudly and ran after it.

I struggled to keep up with them. They turned down a few streets. at one point I stopped running and watched as they ran into a building, I could still hear Dareth yelling at what ever it was. The Unidentified Purple Flying Object few out a second story window, followed closely by Dareth, who made a perfect landing.

"Give me back my hat!" he yelled and continued running after it.

_This is almost to funny, I wish I had a camera._ I thought to myself while trying really really hard not to laugh. They were almost out of sight. _I better catch up to them, wouldn't want to miss Dareth being outsmarted by a cloud of purple smoke._ I caught up as fast as I could and found him looking at something ahead of him. I turned my attention to what he was staring at. The cloud dropped the helmet into a figures hand and landed on it's gray outstretched arm and materialized into a falcon with purple eyes. My smile faded and the color drained from my face when I saw who it was.

"Zane."


	6. Messages and Lloyd

"I knew you were stubborn," Zane said as his eyes changed from a whitish-purple to the purple they had been in my dream or nightmare whatever. "I didn't realize you were stupid as well." His voice was so cold I could actually see my breath make puffs in front of me. (none of them have their masks on)

I glared at him. _I am so going to make him pay! Wait, if Zane is here then Cole Jay and Nya must be as well._ I glanced around looking for them. Zane laughed sarcastically and I turned back to him. _That's new._

"It's just me, this time." he smirked. "the Overlord merely sent me to give you a message." The falcon flew over us, dropping a folded piece of paper and flying back to him. I grabbed the paper as it fell and turned to look at Zane but he was gone. _Whoa..._

"Am I hallucinating or did the Ninja of Ice just disappear into thin air?" Dareth said shakily.

"No your not." I replied then looked down at the note in my hand. "We might as well see what this message says." I unfolded the paper and read it.

"What does it say?" he asked and looked over my shoulder.

There written in purple ink were two simple words: _Give Up_

"O-k, that's a little creepy." Dareth said.

After rereading the note for what felt like the 100th time, I finally wrinkled up the paper and stuffed it into my pocket. _I am a Ninja._ I turned to Dareth who looked pale. "We need to find Lloyd."

"But what about my helmet, we-"

"If you want to battle stone soldiers and evil ninja, be my guest," I interrupted. "but I came out of the dojo to find Lloyd and I plan to." and we started to walk/limp back to where we were before the falcon took off with the helmet.

"I understand that he's a part of your team and the green ninja in all but why are you so set on finding him?"

"He's like a little brother to me, plus the other ninja and I swore to protect him."

"Wow," Dareth said and we walked around in silence.

(5 minutes later)

"I think we should head back to the dojo now," Dareth said, interrupting the silence.

"Why?" I asked. "It hasn't even been an hour."

"Actually Kai, it has been about 30 minutes more than that." he held up his watch. "We left the dojo around 6:30 and it's almost 8."

"Then we have a half-hour left to look for him."

"It took us awhile to get this far into the city, the dojo is not nearby and we have been walking around non-stop."

"And your point is what exactly?"

"We should head back." Dareth concluded.

I glanced around at the surrounding buildings. They were all three stories tall and had long alleys between them. _Maybe he is right we shou-_ From where I was I could see a dip in the ground that looked as if something had crashed and slid down the alley two buildings in front of us.

"What's that?" I asked partly to myself and limped over to the alley.

It was similar to the other alleys in most ways. The ground was dirt and covered in trash and dead leafs. Both sides of the buildings had graffiti on them, some of it said "Slither was here!" or "Ninjas stink!" At the back of the alley there was a wood fence with a garbage can by it. The mark in the ground I had noticed before went almost all the way to the fence. There was something bright gold at the end of the streak.

"I think that's Lloyd," I said to Dareth and limped down the alley. "Hey Lloyd are you o- (my eyes widened) oh no."


	7. Lloyd's Fate

_**Previously** _

_I glanced around at the surrounding buildings. They were all three stories tall and had long alleys between them. Maybe he is right we shou- From where I was I could see a dip in the ground that looked as if something had crashed and slid down the alley two buildings in front of us._

_"What's that?" I asked partly to myself and limped over to the alley._

_It was similar to the other alleys in most ways. The ground was dirt and covered in trash and dead leafs. Both sides of the buildings had graffiti on them, some of it said "Slither was here!" or "Ninjas stink!" At the back of the alley there was a wood fence with a garbage can by it. The mark in the ground I had noticed before went almost all the way to the fence. There was something bright gold at the end of the streak._

_"I think that's Lloyd," I said to Dareth and limped down the alley. "Hey Lloyd are you o- (my eyes widened) oh no."_

**(a few minutes before)**

Sensei Wu and Misako were flying on the dragon and saw Kai and Dareth walking through the streets. It was fairly easy to point them out because there weren't that many people walking around.

"Didn't you tell Kai to stay in the dojo?" Misako asked.

"Yes." Sensei Wu replied with a sigh. "However I assumed he would not listen."

"Those two are going into that alley, Kai's moving fast. We should land so we can give them a ride back."

Sensei Wu nodded and the dragon landed just outside the alley. They were careful to avoid tripping over the long ditch that went through the alley.

"Kai, what in Ninjago do you think you are doing?" Sensei asked.

"I was right..." he said softly. "That gold light I saw earlier? It _was_ Lloyd."

The old ninja walked forward until he saw what Kai was looking at. His eyes widened in shock and he heard Misako gasp behind him. There at the end of the ditch was a mess of gold powder but nothing more.


	8. That Never Happened

**(** Kai's POV, 2 months later **)**

I didn't want to believe Lloyd was gone. It couldn't be possible. I searched for nearly two months until Sensei and Misako managed to get me to stop. We were all going to miss him and I just needed to accept it. I was having trouble sleeping most of the last few weeks.

I tossed and turned as the memories came to my mind.

_Cole, Jay and, Zane came at me with their swords drawn, Nya forcing me against the building. The flash of light in the sky, running down the stairs followed so closely I could hear them talking._

It's been an interesting last few weeks to say the least. So far I've been chased by stone soldiers seven times, ran into the other ninja three to four times each, and saved about twenty people from being turned evil. We have also been working on getting people out of the city; some of the kids from Darkles Boarding School, Jay's parents, Cole's dad, and a few other people were in the group that left yesterday. It hadn't gone as well as we had hoped but they all made it out of the city. A group of stone soldiers followed us and I had to teach them a lesson. When we got back I went straight to bed.

* * *

"Kai wake-up. Your going to be late for training." Cole said. W _ait Cole!_

My eyes shot open and I abruptly sat up to look for the source of the voice but ended up hitting my head on something hard. _Since when was the ceiling in the dojo so close to the ground?_ I rubbed my head and looked around. _Why does it look like the bedroom on the Bounty?_ I turned my head to the door way and saw the other ninja; only they weren't evil, they looked like they did on the Dark Island.

"What are you three doing here?" I asked quickly and looked around again. "And how is the Bounty in one piece?" The ninja looked at each other worriedly.

"Maybe he hit his head to hard." Jay whispered.

I glared at them - more specifically Jay - as I got off the top bunk. "I don't know what the Overlord's plan is this time but-"

"Do you not recall Lloyd defeating his father before he could complete the Garmatron?" Zane asked.

"That didn't happen... we were too late to stop him and the final battle took place in Ninjago City. You guys were turned evil." I replied. _Should I tell them about Lloyd's death? No, now isn't the right time._

"I don't recall that happening." Zane noted.

"It was just a dream." Cole stated. "get ready for training, Sensei doesn't like it when we are late."

_This is obviously one of the Overlord's tricks._ "Ok... I'll be out in a minute."

"Zane isn't it your turn to cook?" Jay asked.

"Yes that is right." he replied and ran out of the room to the kitchen. Jay and Cole left after him.

_There is something going on here... I know what happened was real and I plan to get to the bottom of this._


	9. Really Strange Reality

**(** Kai's POV **)**

I walked into the room and found the others talking with Sensei Wu about something. Lloyd was there and despite looking tired he was fine. I should have guessed he would still be alive.

"Your serious?" Jay asked.

"Whats going on?"

"Sensei is giving us the day off." Zane said.

 _That's not like him._ "Really?" I asked.

Sensei Wu nodded. "You five fought well yesterday and deserve a break."

"Come on Kai. He's giving us the day off let's go before he changes his mind." Jay ran out of the room followed by Cole and Zane

This is getting strange, but might as well act like I don't think somethings up. "Ok."

We got outside and I found that we were still on the Dark Island. Nya was just finishing up the last few repairs to the engines then we could leave. Over all today was great, we swam in the ocean, roasted giant marshmallows that apparently were in a cupboard in the kitchen the whole time, and basically had a great time. However, there was one thing I wasn't looking forward to. Cole's turn to cook. **(dun dun dun!)**

"I thought Cole cooked yesterday." I said. _  
_

"Nice try Kai but everyone was so tired that we all went strait to bed." Cole replied. "So it's my turn to cook." He left into the Bounty

"So what do you guys want to do while we wait?" Lloyd asked.

"How about video games?" Jay suggested.

"Might as well since there's nothing else to do." I said. The others agreed.

On our way in Nya said she was done and that we would take off in a few minutes, which we did. Lloyd, Zane, Jay, and I played video games for almost an hour until Cole finally said he was done. After some complaining from Jay, we went into the kitchen. Last I checked Cole had been making lasagna, not sure if I would call it that exactly but it beats the duck-chowder. Then it all came down to tasting it I put some on the fork and put it in my mouth, waiting to spit it out but, it was _good_. Really good -

 _Wait a second... Lloyd being alive. Sensei letting us have the day off. Giant marshmallows. Cole's cooking tasting great._ "This isn't real." I mumbled.

"What was that Kai?" Misako asked.

"You all aren't real. This is some sort of trick." I said louder.

They all looked at each other and started to laugh manically.

"I can't believe it took you this long to figure it out." Cole said but it wasn't his voice.

"Overlord..."

"Yes indeed. I thought that I should pay you a visit." Zane replied, he also had the Overlord's voice.

"And seeing as you keep on interfering with my plans..." Jay added.

"I'm going to take the pleasure of personally destroying you!" Lloyd said just before everyone jumped out of their seats.

 _Crap!_ I got up and ran to the deck. The wind was blowing hard and was shaking the Bounty slightly. _I can't fight them, their my family._ I turned around and saw that they were all getting ready to fight. Jay ran up to me ready to kick me - _all right that's it!_ \- I grabbed his foot and flung him into the others, knocking over everyone and sending Lloyd backward to the side of the ship...

"Lloyd!"


	10. Chapter 10

**(** Nya's POV **)**

I leaned against a wall of the room we were in. There were two couches, a small kitchen and doors that lead to the bed rooms. Zane was in a corner meditating while Jay and Cole were arm-wrestling over what looked like a granola bar, so far it looked as if neither of them were going to win. Though being realistic Cole would win. A stone soldier walked into the room. We all stood-up.

"The Overlord wishes to speak with Nya." it said.

Jay snickered, "Nya's in trouble. Nya's in trouble." Cole laughed.

I walked over to them, grabbed their arms, threw them into the wall then picked up the granola bar and left.

Our attempts to get rid of Kai have not worked, I'm almost certain it was Jay's fault. I entered the huge throne-room and bowed in front of the Overlord.

"You called for me." I said standing up.

"Yes, as you know I have most of Ninjago under my control, from the city to the farm land. However, with the recent failures of the ninja to capture _Kai,_ I have had to postpone expanding my control further." the Overlord he faced a window overlooking the shadowy city. "That is where you come in."

"Yes sir." I replied. "What would you like me to do?"

"Seeing as your his sister, your the one that has the best chance at finding and capturing him." the dragon continued. "Take some soldiers and the ninja if you wish and bring him to me, dead or alive."

I smirked. "As you command." I left the stone room then walked back to the room where the ninja were.

"So, how did it go?" Jay said.

"Get five soldiers and meet me downstairs." I announced.

"Why should we listen to you?" Cole asked, clearly not forgetting that I took their granola bar.

"Unless you want to be stuck in here all day."

"Fair point." he replied. I turned to the door.

"Where are you going?" Zane asked.

"I have a little family reunion to put together."


	11. Nya

**(** Kai's POV **)**

"So can you remind again me how sitting in one spot with my eyes closed is going to help me beat the other ninja." I asked.

Sensei Wu decided it would be best to go deeper into my training after a battle with the other ninja and my sister. So, I have been sitting in the exact same spot, for the last three hours. I think I should be working on more useful fighting skills but that's just me.

"The strength of a ninja's mind is just as important as their physical strength." he replied.

I rolled my eyes. _Of course it is._ "I still don't see how this will help." There was no response. "I'm going to look around the city for any more people who aren't evil." I stood up and found that he was clear on the other side of the room in front of his spirit-smoke; I left without making a lot of noise.

The city was like it normally was. Quiet, dark, and eerie. I stuck to the shadows to avoid unwanted attention from the people who were under the Overlord's control. Their were several patrols of soldiers marching around but I was able to avoid most of them. I was near the huge fortress that the Overlord calls home to gather some information, but I couldn't stop myself from thinking back to the final battle. From the Dark Island to seeing my friends and sister evil. My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Nya talking to someone. Looking around the corner I saw her, Cole, Jay, and Zane coming out of the skyscraper with a few stone soldiers following them.

"- and Jay will search the south-west part of the city. If you find him, bring him to me alive. Does everyone remember the plan?" she asked. The ninja and soldiers nodded in reply. "Good. Now get out of here!" Two soldiers followed Nya while the others went after the ninja in different directions. I ducked behind the building as Nya ran by me.

_I should follow Nya to see what she is planning, knowing what has happened recently it can't be good._ Staying in the shadows, I followed her through the city. It looked like she was searching for someone. I was about to move closer when Nya suddenly turned in my direction, I ducked in response. _Maybe she didn't see me._ I moved to look back over the street but the building I was standing on started to shake. The floor started to crack under my feet so I quickly jumped off, landing on the road as the building fell down. Looking up I saw Nya standing by the debris.

"Nice to see that you could join us." she said

"What are you up to Nya?"

"The Overlord sent me to look for you." Nya stated. "You have been in the way for a while so I'm here to put an end to it."

Before I could ask what she meant Nya pulled out a sword and they ran at me. "NINJAGO!" I called out as the tornado surrounded me.

We fought back and forth. The two stone soldiers ran off when I pulled out my sword and lit them on fire. The longer I fought her the more I noticed how she wasn't holding back. Nya kicked me into the side of a car, knocking the wind out of me for a moment. I looked up just in time to block her sword from hitting my face with my sword. I wasn't going to give up and neither was she.

"Nya snap out of it!" I said. It was worth a shot, I hadn't tried it since the Dark Island. She didn't seem to care that I was taking. So I tried again. "Nya, the overlord is controlling you. It's me, Kai. You need to fight against his power. Please Nya." I hadn't noticed before but the handle of my sword was glowing. The best way to describe it would be the way the Golden Weapons would light up when we found our true potentials. Before I knew it a sudden blast of light came from it, making me let go and fly back a few feet.

_That was weird._ I looked around and saw scorch marks surrounding my sword, which had retraced back to a handle. A dark purple cloud dissipated and I saw my sister lying on the ground. I ran over to her.

"Nya! Are you ok?" She didn't answer. "N... Nya?" Still no reply. _No... She can't be gone..._ I closed my eyes and started to cry softly to my self. _My sister is gone..._ I heard coughing. Opening my eyes I see it came from Nya.

She looked at me then looked around. "Kai..."


	12. No Longer Evil

"Kai... What hap-"

I interrupted her with a tight hug. "Your ok!"

"What are you talking about?" Nya asked. "The last thing I remember was getting my face shoved into what looked like purple pudding."

"You cant remember anything?" I asked, letting her free.

"It's all a big blur." she replied.

"Absolutely nothing from the last two months?"

"What do you mean "two months"?"

"The battle was two month's ago." I stated

"Really?" I nodded. "Wow... how did it go?" Nya asked

I thought of the best way to put it. "We... lost."

"Oh."

After an awkward pause I told her we should meet up with Sensei. When she asked where the other ninja were I replied that I would tell her when we were in a safer part of the city. Neither of us talked after this. The rest of the walk was uneventful and quiet. Too quiet. _The city is never this silent._ There was no wind, no barking from a random dog and no lightning or thunder. _Something is not right..._ I stopped and looked around. The hair the back of my neck stood up. _Oh no..._

"We need to get out of here now!" I said quickly and grabbed her arm forcing her to match my pace.

"Kai what are you talking about?" she asked.

I ignored the question and kept running. _We need some where to hide quickly. I cant battle him if I have Nya with me, it would put her in danger._

"Tell me what's going on Kai." Nya stated.

"You wouldn't believe me." I replied. She rolled her eyes. "I don't want to run into someone."

"Who?"

Before I could answer a voice came down from a building making us stop in our tracks. "Me."

I look up and find the person I was hoping not to encounter. Jay.

"What do you want?" I yelled the question at him as I got in front of Nya.

"What no "hello" or "hi"?" Jay asked. I just glared at him. "Fine, to answer your question the Overlord sent the four of us out here to find you."

"Nya isn't on your side now." I stated.

He looked at Nya who was staring at him with a shocked expression on her face.

"I can see that," he shrugged. "I'm still going to bring you to the Overlord any way."

I pulled out my sword and shot fire at him. He dodged and aimed lightning at me. I got out of the way dragging Nya with me. She must have been really surprised when Jay showed up evil. They had been dating for a while. He leaped off the building landing on the sidewalk. I need to figure a way out of here. Looking around I noticed that the building Jay was in front of had an awning. _If I time it right._ Jay ran at me, I kicked sending him flying into the building then melted the bar holding up the awning making it fall onto him. I put my sword away, grabbed Nya's arm and continued to run. We ran until I saw the dojo and Jay was out of sight.

"Come on Nya let's go in side."

* * *

**(** Later **)**

"So I've been under the Overlord's control for the past two months and so have Cole, Zane and Jay?" Nya asked.

"Pretty much." I replied.

"Where was Lloyd during all of this? I haven't see him yet."

When we got back Sensei Wu Misako, and Zane's dad greeted us. They were surprised to see her but I explained what happened while I was out. Sensei filled her in on most of what has been going on since she had been turned evil but failed to mention anything about Lloyd. The three of them didn't say a word. So I decided to give her a clue.

"Like I said before, we lost."

Nya gasped "He's..."

I nodded.

"Poor Lloyd." After an awkward pause she continued. "When do I start training?"

"Wait what?"

"Come on Kai you can't expect me just sit around doing nothing while you get to fight stone soldiers. I'm going to help." she stated.

Sensei thought for a moment. "We can start your training tomorrow." he said. "But for now you should get some rest."

"Yes Sensei." Nya replied then went upstairs.

When I heard a door close I turned to Sensei Wu. "She froze up when we faced Jay. What if it happened again?"

"She wasn't expecting to see him evil." he replied. "Nya will be fine."

I nodded. "If you say so."

"How did you manage to free her from the Overlord's power?" Dr. Julien asked.

"I don't know. My sword started glowing, sent us flying back and when I could see she wasn't evil any more." I replied. "At the time I thought it looked like the golden weapons did when one of the ninja found their true potential, but now that I think about it, it looked more like the power that Lloyd had shot at stone soldiers."

"It could be possible that your sword mimicked his power." Misako said. "I'll do a little more research."

"For now we should all get some rest. It has been a busy day." Sensei stated. "You have training again tomorrow."

Everyone agreed and went their separate ways for the night.

* * *

**(** Somewhere else, Someone's POV **)**

I'm surrounded by darkness. Although, I can still feel the chains on my feet and wrists, I can't see them. This has been my prison since I was on the Dark Island. It is impossible to tell how long it has been since then, probably weeks. I had been tricked into this and now I can not find a way out. _Are those footsteps?_ They grow louder until the door in front of me opens shedding purple tinted light into the room and making me squint to see even though I knew who it was. After all, he was the only one able to visit.

"What do you want?" I asked. "You have already taken what matters to me."

"I have no time for your remarks." he shouted back. "One of the ninja has informed me that Nya is no longer on my side. I came here to tell you that if one more of them is freed I will not hesitate to get rid of you."

"And what would I have to do with that?" _I don't see how I would have any affect on the outside world. I've been trapped here for who knows how long._

"Just know that if I get any more bad news you will be hearing from me." he replied and turned to the door.

_As if ther-_

He grabbed me by the collar of my shirt. "I've already killed your son, and I can kill your wife and brother as well." he said in a deadly serious voice.

_N...no..._ I looked at the ground.

"That's better. Remember, I control you and your mind." he smirked. "I will see you again, Garmadon." He threw me to the ground and closed the door behind him.

I sighed in relief when the door closed and I was showered with darkness. _This is all my fault..._ I was the reason that he crossed into my world, actually their world now. This could have been avoided if I had listened to them. I can not control what happens now. _So this is my punishment._ Trapped in the mind of the Overlord.

* * *


	13. Under the City

**(** Kai's POV **)**

Looking around I saw that I was in the dojo but the place was on fire. _What is going on?_ I rushed outside to escape and find that the others made it out safely as well. Their clothes are slightly burnt but other than a few minor burns they looked fine.

"Are you guys ok?" I asked. Either they didn't hear me or they were ignoring me. I was going to say something else when the other ninja ran over from another building carrying fire extinguishers. None of them were evil. They aimed them at the fire and it went down a little. Cole came over to us.

"The fire is too big Sensei, we need to go now." he said.

"Tell the other ninja we are leaving." Sensei replied. "We need to go before another attack." Cole nodded then ran over to Jay and Zane.

"What's going on?" I asked. But no one heard me. They all ran away from the fire as it began to die down

The wind picked up and the scene changed to the Overlord's fortress. The huge monster looked down from the top.

"You may have freed your sister for now but that doesn't mean you will win." the Overlord stated. "Without that boys power you cannot come close to winning. You will lose everything."

"Don't count on it." I shouted back.

The dragon laughed as it flapped it's wings. The wind picked up again but this time dark purple clouds started to form around me. I then started to do spinjitzu to clear away that clouds but they continued to surround me. once I stopped spinning the clouds covered the world around me and everything went black.

* * *

"Kai get up or you will be late for training." Nya said.

"I'll be out in five minutes." I yawned.

"Good. Don't be late." she replied and left down the hall.

_That was a really weird dream._ I got ready and went to the training room. Sensei, Dr. Juilien and Nya were sitting on chairs on the far side of the room.

"Now that your here Kai we can start." Sensei stated. "Since you have become accustomed to fighting stone soldiers and the other ninja you can show her how to fight them."

"Really?" I asked. He nodded. "Ok. Lets start with the other ninja. They are usually with at least two stone soldiers or together. There is a simple way to tell whether or not one of them is close..."

I continued to explain how to tell which one of the ninja was close. For Jay basically the static-electricity in the air increases making your hair stand on end; the continuous storm slowing to a stop is a side affect. Zane is probably the easiest to detect. The air becomes really cold and you can see your breath in front of you, also frost forms on the ground and grass. With Cole, the ground shakes a little and the buildings sway slightly, not enough to break them but still visible. The stone army travel in groups of at least three and they are so loud and obnoxious you could here them from a block away. We had breakfast while I informed Nya about the city.

"So do they have any attacks I should know about?" Nya asked.

"Not that I can think of." I replied. "The ninja still use their weapons. Other than that I can't think of anything else at the moment."

"Nya seeing as you are a samurai, you already posses great fighting abilities." Sensei Wu said. "Kai will take you around the city to check for any people left. Last I checked there was a big group hiding in the northern part of the city."

"Yes Sensei." we both replied at the same time and turned to leave when Misako came in carrying a rolled up scroll.

"I believe I found something about your sword glowing." she said and unrolled the paper. "It says here 'Should the Darkness prevail over Light, the power of the Ultimate Spinjitzu Master shall go to his four protectors. As it will then become their duty to save Ninjago.'" Everyone was silent after that but I broke it.

"Does the scroll say anything about if the protectors become consumed by darkness?" _How can we be expected to fight back if three of the protectors are evil?_

Misako looked over it again. "Not in this scroll."

"Nya and I are going around the city, we will be back around 6." I said as we left. "You need to stay with me Nya." I told her while looking around.

"Don't worry Kai." she replied.

_When this whole mess is taken care of I'll be happy._ We went through most of the city unseen except for a few small patrols of soldiers. We stopped by a few of the houses in the northern part of the city and told people about the way out of the city and more importantly away from the Overlord. I looked at the watch on my wrist. We had been away from the dojo for almost five hours.

"There are a few more places I want to check really quick and then we can head to the western part of the city." I said.

"Good. This area is creepy."

"It's just like the rest of the city and most of Ninjago for that matter." I just noticed how quiet it had gotten. _That's not right. There should at least be lightning and thunder, I can tell it's not Jay though._ I took off my mask so I could hear better and it worked. The sound of stone soldiers was coming from everywhere. "There are stone soldiers all around us." I whispered.

"Can't we find a way around them?" Nya replied.

"No they will spot us either way. There are most likely some on the roofs as well." I looked around and spotted a way into the sewer. _We could go down there for now and come out closer to the dojo._ "Follow me." I lifted the metal slab which reveled a ladder. She got in first and I followed after her.

"Why are we down here?" Nya asked.

"There is an exit near the dojo, it's the safest way and we can get by those warriors without them knowing." I turned to her it was clear she hadn't been convinced. "Unless you would rather face close to two-hundred stone soldiers."

She rolled her eyes in reply. It was dimly lit by small lights lining the walls. We walked for almost an hour until we came to a brightly lit tunnel in the wall.

"What could have caused this?" I thought out loud.

"It could be a passage for the army." my sister suggested.

"Possibly." I replied. "We should check it to be sure.".

She agreed and we followed the tunnel. At the end was a huge door.

"This must be where the serpentine were sealed away." Nya stated.

"Ya. Just before the stone soldiers appeared." I added. _I wonder what they have been doing since._ The door opened in the center. I got in front of Nya as light shed into the tunnel.

"I heard sssssome noissse in the entrance. I'll be back in a moment." The figure turned to us. "What are you two doing down here?!"

"Skales!" we said at the same time.


	14. The Serpentine

What are you sssurface dwellersss doing down here?!" Skales asked. From the look on his face I could tell he was surprised.

"None of your business." I retorted. "Nya let's go." As we turned to leave the sound of stone soldiers filled the tunnel. _Just what we need._ Skales must have heard them to because his head turned to the noise.

The snake looked at us again. "Come in quickly. Before they sssee you." He gestured for us to follow him.

_There is no way I'm trusting a snake._ The sounds of the warriors grew louder.

"Kai there's no time." Nya stated quickly and she dragged me through the door. Skales shut the door behind us.

I glared at Nya. _She could have led us right into a trap. We could get stuck down here._ I looked at my surroundings. It was amazing. There were stalagmites everywhere and some sort of glowing green substance lined the walls, ceiling and in lamps. The small houses were built into the walls and larger stalagmites. On the ground was a light green river, spiraling from one side of the room to the other. Snakes from all the tribes were running around, talking, drawing on the walls and making more houses.

"Wow." I said softly.

"Yessss well, we Ssserpentine have tried to make the mossst of being trapped down here." Skales noted. "The four tribes have decided to put the wars of the passst behind ussss and look to the future."

"This place is amazing." Nya complimented.

"We all worked hard on it." The hypnobrai stated. "The tunnel sssshould be clear in a few minutessss."

My mind cleared. "Good, we need to get back."

"You may walk around if you want to. No one sssshould interrupt you. As I said we gave up your warring past." Skales slithered over to a bright pink hypnobrai and a really small blue one.

_He has a family?_

"There is no point in just standing here." Nya said and began to walk off.

"We can look around for a while but we can't stay long." I replied and followed her.

There were many young serpentine running around and at one point we crossed a group playing soccer. They kicked the ball to us and asked us to join. I didn't want to but Nya got me into it. After a few minutes I was having a great time. We were on different teams and by the end of the game the group I was with won. Their parents told them to go inside so they said goodbye and left.

"See Kai, I told you that soccer was a good idea." my sister stated.

"It wasn't as bad as I thought." I admitted then I looked at my watch 6:29. "We need to go Sensei is probably wondering where we are."

"Ok."

We walked to the door and found Skales waiting for us.

"I hope that none of the young onesss bothered you." He stated.

"Not really. We got invited to play soccer for a while and that's about it." I said.

"That'sss good. I will sssshow you the quickesst way to your home from here." Skales went through the door. Ten minutes later we came to a ladder. "The Dojo isss two blockss eassst. Have a safe journey."

We said goodbye and climbed the ladder. Sure enough we were only a few blocks away from the Dojo. I explained why we were late and how the serpentine decided to live a peaceful life.

"As long as you both are ok that is all that matters. Get something to eat and rest. There is more work to be done tomorrow." Sensei Wu said.

"Yes Sensei." We turned to leave.

"Kai wait one moment."

_Great what does he need now?_

"Is something on your mind?" my teacher asked.

_Other than the dream I had last night, nothing._ "No."

"Ok, get some rest."

I got something to eat and went to my room. _Maybe I can actually sleep for once._


	15. Chapter 15

Over the course of a few months, we continued to visit the serpentine. It wasn't my idea but Sensei Wu said it would be good to have some allies so I went along with it. As it turns out the pink hypnobrai is Skales' wife, Selma and the small one is his son, Skales Jr.. After getting to know the serpentine a little I found out they weren't that different from humans. I'm not going to let my guard down though. They could be planning some thing. They introduced us to a network of tunnels they dug throughout the city and where a few new stone soldier bases are. Everything was going great until...

"Nya, I think they had enough food for a while." I said as I dragged a wagon of food through the tunnel. Don't ask how we managed to get it down here.

"It was Sensei's idea not mine." she replied. "Besides, I'm sure Skales Jr. is looking forward to seeing you."

"I guess." _The kid has grown on me._ Skales' son was always the first to greet us on days he knew we were coming and would tell us all about what had happened since we were last there.

"Looks like we're here." Nya stated as we arrived at the open door.

_The door isn't usually left open._ She turned to me and I could tell we were thinking the same thing, Stone soldiers. We ran into the cave hoping that they left it open on accident but it was empty. The place looked like a tornado came through. There were stalactites stuck in the ground and broken stalagmite pieces were everywhere. The part that stood out the most was the fact that every thing looked grey and purple-black slime puddles were everywhere.

"Skales? Fangtom? Anyone here?" Nya asked.

I took a closer look at the slime. "Nya, this looks like dark matter."

She walked over to me. "Your right. That means the stone army was down here."

"Great. Just what we need." I stated. _As if facing the other ninja and hundreds of stone soldiers wasn't enough._ "Is anybody here? Selma? Skales Jr.?"

"Kai! Your here!" the small hypnobrai ran up to me and grabbed my leg in a hug.

"It's good to see you to kid." I laughed. "Where is everyone?"

"Really big stone people came and sprayed everyone with that slimy stuff." he said as small tears trailed down his face. "They all fought back but..."

"Don't worry we'll find them." Nya whispered softly. "Is any one else here?"

"I-I don't know." Skales Jr. sniffled. "My d-daddy told me to st-stay out of sight. Then p-punched some rock people be-before they got him."

_I can't stand this. It has only been seven months and the Overlord has managed to ruin everyone's lives._ "Well when I get a hold of those stone people they're going to wish they hadn't messed with the serpentine. Ok?"

"R-really? Yay! Thank you Kai!" he said and hug me again.

"No problem. Before we go we should see if there are any others." I said.

We looked around for almost an hour before we decided to go home. _Some of them probably escaped._ It took a little longer because we didn't want to run into any stone warriors when we had Skales Jr. with us. Luckily there was no trouble other than the wagon getting stuck a few times. We made it to the dojo without running into anyone.

"I see you both made it back." Sensei Wu said.

Misako was the first to notice the small hypnobrai behind me. "Did Skales Jr. follow you home again?"

"We ran into a little trouble." I replied. Nya took the small snake into the training room. "The Overlord turned them evil."

"What happened?" Dr. Juilien asked.

"Skales Jr. told us that the stone army attacked them and all the serpentine were consumed by dark matter. The place was practically destroyed and we couldn't find any others." I answered.

"Then he will stay with us for the time being." Sensei Wu stated.

"He will appreciate that." _We need to find out how to change the serpentine back._ "Misako have you found any thing new in the scrolls?"

"Not yet," She replied.

"Kai, see if you can find any other serpentine not under the Overlord's power in the city." Sensei said.

"Yes Sensei." I left the dojo.

The city was quiet as usual. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. I couldn't find any serpentine or stone soldiers any where. Not even underground. I looked for hours and finally decided to go back to the dojo and search the city tomorrow.

"Where do you think your going?"

I turned around quickly and see Cole leaning against a car that had been abandoned on the side of the road.

"As if I would tell you!" I retorted.

He removed his mask and smirked. "If you're looking for the serpentine your too late."

"What did the Overlord do with them?"

"My master didn't do anything." he replied. "I lead the attack myself."

I glared at him. _Figures._

"They didn't suspect a thing." Cole stated. "It was easy. I can barely believe they were ever seen as a threat."

"If your done bragging I have somewhere I need to be." I turned to leave but was got caught in a pile of dirt rising from the ground.

"Your not going anywhere. The Overlord wanted you out-of-the-way and I'm here to make sure that happens."


	16. Chapter 16

"Acidicus! Skales!" Cole yelled and the snakes appeared seconds after. "Tie Kai up and bring him with us."

"Yessss sssir." They both said and proceeded to tie rope around my wrist behind my back. Their eyes were purple and they had a gray tint in their scales.

_This is just my luck._

"Get moving Ninja!" Skales shouted. Acidicus pushed me forward.

"I'm going! I'm going! Yeesh!" _I need to get out of this._ I pulled on the rope but it wouldn't loosen

"Don't even _think_ about trying to escape." Cole stated. "Because we will hunt you down."

_Wow._ I rolled my eyes in reply.

As we walked, stone soldiers started to join the group. The Overlord's fortress came into view.

_That's it, I need to figure a way out. Wait a minute! If Cole can control dirt to trap me, then that means..._ My hands suddenly burst into flames, burning the rope. _I can't believe I didn't try that earlier._

"He'sss essscaping!" Acidicus said right before I kicked him in the face.

"Don't just stand there!" Cole shouted at the soldiers. "Get him!"

"Not this time Cole!" I replied. "NINJAGO!" Knocking over the soldiers and serpentine around me. They all ran away, leaving Cole and I to fight.

Cole pulled out his sword. "The Overlord want's you dead or alive. I'm not going to let you escape that easily." He ran at me.

I pulled out my sword to block the attack. We fought back and forth for what seemed like for ever. Neither of us would give in. _This has gone on too long._ Using spinjitsu, I created a circle of fire around him.

"Try getting out of that." I smirked before hurrying back to the dojo.

"You can't avoid us forever Kai!" the ninja of Earth yelled.

* * *

I walked into the dojo as quiet as possible since it was almost 10:30 pm and all the lights were off. _What I need now is sleep._ I laid down on my bed almost asleep when someone knocked on my door. _Who is up this late?_ They knocked again. Yawning I got up.

"I'm coming." I opened the door to see Skales Jr.

"I couldn't sleep." he said in a small voice. "Can you please tuck me in?"

"Sure kid." I replied and walked him back to his room.

He climbed into the bed. "Do you really think you can save my mom and dad?"

"It will take a little time but we should be able to." _Right now we don't even know how to help the ninja._

I finished tucking him in. "Thank you Kai." the little snake replied. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight." I went back to my room and laid down. _We better figure out how to break the Overlord's control soon or I might have just lied to him._


	17. Jay's Day

(The Next Day) (Jay's POV)

Yesterday Cole went out on his own to bring Kai to the Overlord. When he came back he was covered in minor cuts, bruises and burns. He told us what happened and I started laughing. Even with an army backing him up Cole couldn't catch Kai. Today was going to be different. We decided that by working as a team we could take out Kai. Granted none of us liked the idea at first but it would get that pest out-of-the-way so, we agreed to deal with it for now. I was about to pour some cereal in a bowl when Cole snatched the box out of my hand.

"Hey! Give me back the cereal!" I tried to get it from him.

"Make me Zap Trap." he smirked while holding the box above my head.

"You asked for it." I shocked Cole with lightning, making him drop the box. "Ha! Take that!" He got up and tried to get the box. "I had it first!"

"And I took it from you which makes it mine!" he replied.

We continued to fight over the cereal. All of a sudden we were stuck in blocks of ice. Apparently Zane woke up and didn't like the noise. _This is not fair!_

"You both need to be quieter." the Ninja of Ice stated. He walked over and took the box out of our hands. Then he put it in a bowl and ate it in front of us.

"You've got to be kidding me!" I yelled. It had been like this ever since Nya had been turned against us.

"Get used to it Jay." Cole said.

"But that was the last of the good kind."

"Just go steal some more." he rolled his eyes.

Zane finished off the cereal and broke the ice that he put us in. "Next time I will leave you in the ice until it melts."

"Fine." we both said.

"Has your pigeon found Hot Head yet?" I asked while stretching.

"He is a _falcon_ and no." Zane replied.

"It's only 10 in the morning Jay, be patient." Cole stated. "I want to knock him to the edge of Ninjago too but we can't do that until we find him."

"This is boring." I sighed and looked at the TV. _Might as well play some video games._ "Hey Cole, I bet I can beat you in Fist to Face 2."

"Don't count on it." he replied.

I put on the game and we sat there for almost 2 hours before Zane's falcon found Kai and Nya near the Doomsday Comics store.

"I won!" I shouted in triumph.

"Too bad you can't fight in real life." Cole smirked.

I glared at him. "I can fight!"

"Ya, barely." he said.

"Would you both stop fighting like four-year olds. My falcon saw them five minutes ago but you two were yelling so much you could not hear me." Zane stated. "If we wish to catch them we need to leave now."

"I'm not done with you." I warned Cole.

"Good luck with that."

I will get back at him. It's not like I'm going anywhere. We left to the city.

* * *

All we were waiting for was Kai and Nya to pass by.

"Nya I already looked in this part of the city. I don't think any serpentine are left around here."

"They have legs Kai. For all you know they could have come through here."

_Wow, right on cue._

"It's a waste of -" He looked around.

"What is it this time?"

"Now!" Cole whispered loudly.

We jumped off the one-story roof on to the road in front of them.

"I knew it." Kai stated. "Come back for another beat down Cole?"

I laughed a little before Cole glared in my direction. _Sensitive much?_

"You won't escape this time." the Ninja of Earth said. Stone soldiers and serpentine came out of the shadows.

They got into fighting stance. Cole gave the word and everyone broke into a fight. The three of us attacked Kai while the others attacked Nya. I tried to focus on fighting Kai but the idea of Nya getting hurt was still in my mind. We had only managed to land a few blows but Kai hadn't gotten any. this went on for a while.

"Kai there are too many of them! I could use some help over here!" Nya shouted.

"I kind of have my hands full at the moment." he replied.

_If we can weaken him enough -_

"Kai!"

The fire ninja turned to his sister and his expression changed to a worried one. "Nya!"

_What happened?_ I looked and saw that she had been cornered.

_Oh no, Nya!_ I took a step towards her.

_What are you doing! She's evil!_ A voice in the back of my mind said.

_No she isn't!_ I replied

_Your on opposite sides! Defeat Kai, now!_

Nya screamed again.

"N-Nya!" I yelled. _I'm not going to lose her!_ "NIN- ( _What are you doing?_ ) -JA- ( _No stop!_ ) -GO!" I spun over to her, knocking down those who were in my way. _Wait, what am I doing here? When did the serpentine come back? Weren't we climbing the Overlord's fortress?_ I stopped spinning and looked around. _Oh,no Nya!_ "Stay away from her!" I shocked the enemies and knocked them over. I helped Nya up, she looked surprised. "Miss me?"

"Y-Your back." she said.

"Was I gone?" I asked. I blocked a few of the stone soldiers swords. "Are you ok?"

"Ya I'm fine."

"Good." I stated. "I don't have a clue what's going on but I can tell who the bad guys are."

We fought side by side until the soldiers ran off. Cole and Zane turned around.

"Great, now Zap Trap turned against us." Cole stated.

"Hey!"

"It would be wise to leave." Zane noted.

"Fall back!" he said. The rest of them ran away.

"At least that's over." I said.

Kai walked over to us. "How did you break the Overlord's control?" he asked.

"What are you- (A stone soldier walked up behind him, sword drawn) Kai watch out!" I shouted pushing him out-of-the-way. The soldier swung the sword. My vision suddenly be came really blurry as I landed on the ground. _What's going on?_ Kai went out of view. I heard Nya yell my name, Kai came back and said something I couldn't catch. Everything turned black around me.


	18. Chapter 18

**(** Kai's POV **)**

"What are you - Kai watch out!" Jay yelled and pushed me to the ground.

_What was he thinking?_

"Jay!" Nya screamed.

I turned and saw that he had collapsed to the ground. I ran over to them. Jay looked up. _Ok I didn't need to see that!_ Over his right eye was a huge gash and blood was oozing out of it. Turning away I saw a stone soldier running away. _Why that little..._ I took out my sword and shot fire at the soldier, nailing it on the back of its head and lighting the stone creep on fire. _Take that!_ I went back to Nya and Jay.

"We need to get him back to Dr. Julien. He can help." I stated taking another glance at the injury.

"Ok." She wrapped his mask over his eye and tied it off. "Let's go." Nya said softly, tears flowing down her cheeks.

We picked him up and carried him back to the dojo. They were all surprised to see Jay. Skales Jr came out of a room.

"What is -"

"Lets go to the training room." Misako interrupted, seeing the situation and took the young snake into a different room.

Nya and I carried Jay to the room in the back of the house where Zane's dad worked. He took one look at Jay's condition and got right to work. He told us to leave the room for now. I sat in the dining room, tapping my foot while Nya paced back and forth. It seemed like hours before Sensei came in to talk with us.

"Do either of you want to tell me how Jay came to be in this state?" he asked.

I explained what I saw happen and Nya filled him in on parts I missed as she paced back and forth.

"It was my fault. I should have paid more attention to my surroundings." I said. _Now Jay could die and it would be my fault._

Sensei Wu put his hand on my shoulder. "It was his decision Kai. All we can do for now is hope he will be fine."

I nodded in reply. Nya was still pacing. _I can't believe she hasn't worn out the floor yet._ Misako came in with Skales Jr following closely.

"What happened to the blue person and who was he?" the hypnobrai asked me.

"His name is Jay, he got hurt saving my life." I replied.

"Whoa really? (I nodded) Wow, he must be really nice."

"Ya." _Don't forget_ _loud_ _and_ _annoying._

We all sat in silence. The only sounds were Nya's footsteps and the ticking of the clock on the wall. We got here at about 2:50 and it was now 4:35. Dr. Julien came into the room, catching all our attentions. Suspense filled the air.

"Jay, should be fine." he said, making everyone sigh in relief. "But the injury made it into his right eye and I couldn't save it." This earned several gasps.

My hand clenched into a fist. _That soldier should get out of Ninjago while it has the chance. Now the Overlord is really going to get it._

"May I see him?" Nya asked.

"He's sleeping but I don't see why not." Zane's dad replied and my sister took off down the hall. He turned to me. "I don't like to bring this up but I'm the inventor type of doctor. All the first aid I know is from living alone for so long and reading. However, like I said he should be ok."

I nodded in reply. _He's probably telling me this because of how often I get into fights with our enemies._ _I might as well go check on Jay._ I went down to the room we took him to. Nya was sitting by the bed he was on. Over all he looked better than he had at first. There were bandages wrapped around his head covering the injured eye.

"Don't worry, Zane's dad said Jay would recover." I reminded Nya.

"I hope so." she said softly.

"Do you want to get something to eat?" I asked. "We haven't had lunch yet."

My sister was quite for a minute before replying. "Sure, I guess." We walked to the door.

"Can you get me something to?"

Looking back we saw that Jay was awake and starting to sit up. Nya rushed over and gave him a tight hug, almost knocking him over.

"How do you feel?" I asked out of reflex.

"Like a bowling ball hit me in the head." Jay replied with a small laugh. "What happened any way?"

Nya and I looked at each other nervously. I could tell we were thinking the same thing. _What do we tell him?_ His smile slowly disappeared as his right hand drifted to the bandages on his head. Jay seamed to remember what happened earlier.

"I guess that explains a lot." he said before looking up at us. "Are you two ok?"

_Why would he be asking us that? He's the one that got hurt._

"Ya." Nya admitted. "I was just worried about you."

"She wouldn't stop pacing across the dining room." I put in.

Jay laughed slightly before wincing. "How about you guys fill me in on what's going on while we get something to eat. I don't think I had breakfast."

We agreed and helped him get to the dining room, since he was still a little dizzy. They were all surprised to see Jay awake and asked him how he felt, they got the same response we did. The ninja of Lightning noticed the small serpentine at the table.

"Who is this?" Jay asked.

"He's Skales' son, S-" I started.

"Whoa whoa whoa! Skales. As in the leader of the serpentine Skales?" he interrupted. Everyone nodded. "Wow. I have a lot to catch up on." He turned to the small hypnobrai and put out his right hand. "I'm Jay nice to meet you."

"Skales Jr." he replied shaking his hand. "Thank you for saving Kai."

"That's what friends do. How long have you been staying here?"

"Since yesterday."

"Really? What happened?" Jay asked.

"Stone people came and took everyone. Even my mom and dad." Skales Jr said softly.

"Wow..." Jay replied.

Nya and I decided to make peanut butter jelly sandwiches for everyone. Nobody talked while eating, which was very unusual, especially when Jay was around. Motor Mouth was looking over the room, probably taking in as much as he could with his left eye. _He is really handling his injury well._

"Does anybody want to tell me what's been going on?" he asked. The room remained silent. "Nya?"

She sighed. "W-what do you remember?"

"Let's see," Jay sat in a position like the Thinker, making a few people laugh under their breath. "We were climbing that fortress and Cole had been hit by dark matter so we had to move faster. I pushed Lloyd out-of-the-way before... I got hit by dark matter, didn't I?" Everyone, except Nya, nodded.

_He figured that out quicker than I thought he would._

"How long has it been?"

"About seven months." I answered.

"Seven months!?" Jay said in a shocked voice. "Why don't I remember anything that happened?"

"Dr Julien thinks it has something to do with the chemical make-up of dark matter."

"Oh," he seemed content with that answer. "What has happened since then?"

We all took turns explaining what happened while he was gone. Jay would ask questions and laugh at some of the things, one of them being when Nya told him about when I was tackled by a bunch of young serpentine. He apologized for nearly cutting off my arm the day the Overlord took over. Then we, and by we I mean me, told him what happened to Lloyd.

"Whoa... poor kid," Jay turned to me. "Do you have a plan?"

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"Obviously Cole isn't going to think of something to help us defeat the Overlord and you seem to know the city pretty well by now. It makes sense to have you make the plan." he answered. Everyone murmured in agreement.

_Great now they are all relying on me._ "I guess I could think of something."

Sensei Wu stood up. "Now that we have that taken care of, I believe it is time for bed. Jay you will sleep in Dr Julien's work room until tomorrow." He nodded and followed Nya to the room. Every one said goodnight.

I stared at the ceiling for what felt like forever. _What if I fail? Everyone is counting on me now. I can't let them down._ Slowly drifted to sleep.

* * *

**(** Nobody's POV **)**

Cole entered the Overlord's chamber and bowed before him.

"I bring unfortunate news." he said, his voice quivering. "Kai has managed to turn Jay against you."

"WHAT?! That ninja is starting to become a real nuisance!" the dragon bellowed, the black ninja covered his ears. "Double the patrols around the city, post guards around the bases, and don't let it happen again!"

"Y-Yes master." Cole bowed again before running out of the room.

"Garmadon will pay dearly."

The Overlord closed his eyes and entered his own mind. He went into a room where the former Ruler of Darkness was chained.

"That insufferable red ninja freed the annoying blue one." the Overlord stated, venom seeping through his voice. "Your mere presence has caused my power to weaken."

"As I said before. I haven't moved since you trapped me here." Garmadon replied. "There is no possible way for anything I do to affect the outside world or you for that matte-" the Overlord cut him off by grabbing his neck.

"Don't EVER mouth-off at me!" he looked at the pain in the old man's eyes and smirked evilly. "In fact, I will make it so you can never speak again."


	19. Garmadon

**(** Cole's POV **)**

The Overlord was not happy when I told him that Jay had betrayed us. I really should have told one of the stone soldiers or serpentine to do it instead. Now the Overlord wanted to speak with me. Overall I was not looking forward to the meeting. I entered the dimly lit room, walked through the darkness, to a massive throne that had an eerie purple glow to it and bowed.

"You wanted to see me master?" I said, trying to sound more confident than I was at the time but my voice gave it way.

"Yes I did." the Overlord's voice echoed through the darkness in reply. "I have something I would like you and a few soldiers to get rid of."

I sighed inwardly in relief before a purple spotlight appeared out of nowhere above a person on the right side of the throne The man was beat up badly with several spots of blood appearing through his clothes. He had gray hair, was wearing black pants and shirt, with a white overcoat, which had patches of blood on it, and a green belt. I walked over to him and moved him slightly with my foot but he was out cold. _What did this guy do to get on the Overlord's bad side?_

"Is he, dead?" I asked shakily.

"Not yet," my master answered. "However that doesn't matter."

_But he will be soon._ I swallowed then turned to my master. "Where should we take him?"

"What is with all these questions?" the Overlord stated. "Somewhere in the southeast part of the city, hardly anyone goes there."

"Yes sir." I replied before picking up the man and putting him over my shoulder. My stomach turned due to the sound of several broken bones grinding together. _I'm going to end up sick to my stomach when this is over._ Ignoring the fact that my clothes were getting dirty I left the room. I was so caught up in my thoughts that I didn't watch where I was going and I bumped into someone, making me drop the guy. _He's just lucky his asleep._

"Watch where your going!" I shouted and turned to the person, expecting to see a stone soldier but instead it was Zane.

"Actually Cole, you are the one that needs to look where your going." he replied and looked at the person on the ground. "Who is that?"

"I don't know. The Over lord wants me to dump him on the other side of the city." I said.

Zane kneeled next to the guy to get a closer look. "He will not last a day out there."

"I know." I stated. "We're evil but..." _Something about doing this doesn't feel right._

"We can not disobey our master Cole." the nindriod said obviously catching what I was saying. "I will help you take him to the city. After that he is not our problem."

_Zane's right. It's not like we can just waltz up to the Overlord and say 'We quit'._ I nodded. "Let's just get this over with."

I picked the guy up and we exited the evil fortress. We walked through the city to the alley of a store and left him there. I couldn't help but feel sorry for the person. We walked away.

"Cole, there is nothing we can do. Try to forget about it." Zane said. I didn't respond. "We could go steal a cake from the bakery."

_I guess cake sounds good._ "Ok." _I still can't imagine what that guy did to upset the Overlord._

* * *

**(** Kai's POV **)**

I walked into the kitchen where Nya and Skales Jr were making pancakes.

"Hi Kai." the hypnobrai said.

"Hi, what's the special occasion?" I asked.

"I found Skales Jr trying to cook pancakes so I decided to help him." Nya replied.

Skales Jr put his hands behind his back. "I just wanted to do something nice for everyone."

"Don't worry kid. Next time just ask for some help, alright?" _It's hard to stay mad at him for too long._

"Ok."

"I'm going to see if Jay is awake. Knowing him he won't want to miss pancakes." I said.

"Alright." Nya replied "He was asleep when I checked earlier."

I went down the hall and opened the door. Jay was sitting up with his knees pulled up to his chest and his head laying on his knees.

"Are you ok Jay?"

He jumped and turned to me. "K-Kai?! What are you doing in here?" His left eye was a little puffy, like he had been crying.

"I came to see if you were awake and tell you that Nya and Skales Jr are making pancakes." I walked over to him. "Are you going to answer my question?"

"Ya sorry." Jay replied. "My head is just pounding like crazy..."

"Oh," I said. "If it makes you feel better, your parents got out of the city before anything worse happened."

"It's not that, but thanks for helping them."

After a few seconds of quiet I spoke again. "I should have paid attention to my surroundings. If I had, you wouldn't have gotten hurt."

"Look Kai, none of this is your fault." Jay turned to me. "You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"If you say so."

"Nya is waiting for us we should probably go." He stood up. "I don't know if you relies this but your sister's pancakes are amazing."

"It's true."

We walked into the other room and everyone was in there. Nya smiled at us then noticed Jay's expression and gave him a hug. _That diffidently made his day._ Everyone talked as they ate and basically just had a great time. Jay even told a few jokes, completely forgetting that his head hurt. Then Sensei said that Nya and I should go buy more first aid supplies so we are prepared.

"Why can't I go with them?" Jay asked.

"Your injured." he replied. "Kai went out there without permission and narrowly missed getting hurt worse. You will stay there until you are fully healed."

"Ok."

"I'll watch TV with you when we get back, ok Jay?" Nya said.

He smiled. "O-ok"

We left the dojo and went to the nearest store but when we got there it was completely surrounded by stone soldiers and serpentine. I wanted to fight our way in but Nya shot down the idea and we went somewhere else. Most of the stores, including dollar stores, were guarded.

"Still say we should fight our way in."

"We are trying to get the supplies without getting hurt." Nya rolled her eyes. "We haven't checked the southeast part of the city yet so let's go there."

As it turned out there were hardy any of the Overlord's army and we were able to buy the first aid supplies. The moment we exited the building I could hear the sound of several stone soldiers on the side of the small store. I walked over and looked around the corner. There were five soldiers and they were standing around something that looked like a person. This can't be good.

"NINJAGO!" I spun over there and scared off the soldiers. When I stopped looked at what they had been surrounding, it was a human. "Nya come over here."

She came over and noticed the guy on the ground. "He looks injured. We should take him back to the dojo." she said. "Maybe Zane's dad can help him." My sister pulled out some bandages and wrapped up a few of the deeper cuts.

"Ya but, we need something to carry him with so he doesn't get worse." I picked up a large flat piece of plastic that looked like it was torn off a dumpster. "Let's use this."

Nya helped me carefully put the guy on the lid and we carried him back to the dojo.

"I trust you were able to find- " Sensei Wu looked at the man we were carrying. "Quickly take him to Dr Julien."

We did as he instructed and Zane's dad took it from there. Everyone, excluding Dr Julien, gathered in the training room.

"Where did you two find him?" Sensei asked.

"Kai wanted to go around the southeast part of the city and we found some stone soldiers surrounding him in an alley." Nya answered.

"What is with you two finding people all the time?" Jay noted.

We both shrugged. "Who is that guy anyway? You act like you know him." I told Sensei.

"That is because, he is my brother."

* * *


	20. Chapter 20

**(** Kai's POV **)**

"What!?" Nya, Jay and I yelled at the same time while Skales Jr gave us a confused look.

"That guy looked nothing like Garmadon!" I stated.

"Ya!" Jay agreed. "He's evil and I can't be the only one who thinks that person doesn't look evil."

"I believe I can recognize my own brother, even after all these years." Sensei replied sternly.

"It is possible that the Overlord siphoned the evil out of Garmadon before getting rid of him." Misako added.

"He could still be evil!"

"Kai he was injured, I doubt he will be able to attack someone anytime soon." Nya said.

"I can confirm that." We turned to the door and saw Dr Juilien standing there.

"How is he?" Sensei asked.

Zane's dad sighed. "I did what I could, if he wakes up then he may be fine but the injuries were very serious." He walked over and sat on a stool. "What ever happened to Garmadon before you two found him had left him barely alive." The room fell silent.

_So if we hadn't found Garmadon he would have died..._

Dr Juilien explained what happened. Most of the cuts needed stitches, his right arm was broken in two spots, the left arm in one spot, his left leg was also broken, both his wrists and ankles were sprained, and one of his ribs were broken. Basically, Garmadon was a mess. I knew the Overlord was behind this.

Misako put a hand on Sensei Wu's shoulder. "It is getting late we should all try to get some sleep."

"Where do I sleep?" Jay asked.

"There is a room next to mine, follow me." Nya replied and left the room with Jay.

I turned to Skales Jr who had been quiet through out the whole conversation. "Come on kid, I'll tuck you in again." He nodded and followed me to his room.

Skales Jr got in his bed and looked at me."Is that Garmadon person going to be ok?"

"He could but he got injured badly." I replied hesitantly.

The small snake nodded again. I left and went to bed.

* * *

(The Next Day, 9:15)

The sound of the TV woke me up, so I went to where the noise was coming from and found Nya and Jay watching a movie.

"Hey Kai do you want to join us?" Jay asked.

"No thanks," I replied. "I'm going for a walk."

"The last time you took a walk I found you in a block of ice." Nya stated making Jay laugh slightly.

I rolled my eyes. "I can handle any of them and I'll be back in an hour."

"Fine, but stay safe." she said.

I nodded and left the dojo. Overall the city was like it always was. The clouds were dark gray as if a thunder storm was happening. People that were under the Overlord's control walked from place to place like zombies. Every once in a while a car alarm would go off in the distance. As well as the sound of groups of stone soldiers and serpentine marching through the streets. Just an average day in Ninjago City. I walked around for a while before coming upon a new three-story building that had the Overlord's army surrounding it and going inside. _What is going on here?_ A group of soldiers carried an old looking car into the building.

_I should find out what is in that building. Or I could just come back later._ Looking around I rushed to the side of the building while none of them were watching and climbed up a ladder, that had conveniently been left against the wall. There wasn't anyone on the roof and just as I thought two long rows of windows were up there. I went up to an open one and looked through it. The place was packed with stone soldiers. There was some sort of conveyor belt moving pieces of metal into a large pit with melted metal mixing around. _The Overlord must be turning that metal into some kind of weapon._ I studied the inside an noticed walkways on the edges where the other two floors would be. _I need to stop this._

"What are _you_ doing here?"

I turned and saw Cole standing a few feet away. "Why do you need to know?"

"This is the Overlord's city and you are the enemy." he said as he pulled out his sword and charged.

Reacting quickly, I blocked the attack with my sword. _I need to get him away from the soldiers._ Looking around I noticed how close the roof next to this one was. I rolled out of the way and jumped to the roof. Cole came after me. I kept this up for a few block then got onto the street below. Nobody else was around.

"You didn't lose me." he stated still holding his sword.

"I wasn't trying to." I replied shooting fire at him.

Cole dodged then slammed his sword into the ground, the crack grew and stretched out to form a rectangle. The round shook violently as the shape in the ground started to rise. We had to be at least 30 stories up when it stopped. Cole came at me again and this time I jumped over him. We fought back and forth until I was able to knock his sword over the side. I turned to him and smirked then I noticed he lost his balance as he fell over the side. _Oh crap!_ I reached over the side just in time to grab Cole's right hand. _Ok, he is heavy._

"Hold on Cole." I said while trying to pull him up.

He nodded, looking terrified but it was kind of funny with his eyes being purple. I finally got him up and we both were out of breath. _I don't see why, I did all the work._

"There... you... go." I was still trying to catch my breath.

Cole turned to me. "Why did you help me?"

"Whether you like it or not my friend is still in you. If you die he dies."

He looked like he was thinking then stood up. I got ready for him to attack again but instead he tapped his foot and the platform went back into the ground. Cole walked over to his sword and put it behind his back.

"Get out of here while you have a chance." he said. "Next time I won't let you get away." Cole walked back in the direction of the place I assumed was a factory.

_Wow. I better get back to the dojo and tell them about that building._


	21. Chapter 21

**(** Kai's POV **)**

I ran back to the dojo but couldn't find Sensei Wu anywhere. Nya, Jay, and Skales Jr playing a board game in the main room.

"Hey Kai want to join?" the young hypnobrai asked. "We can make room."

"Not right now, I'm looking for Sensei." I replied. "There's a factory and I think the Overlord is building some sort of weapon."

"Last time I saw him he went to check on Garmadon." Jay stated.

"It probably isn't a good time to talk to him." Nya said. "Why don't you tell us about that factory?"

_Might as well._ "It's not far from the fortress. The place is crawling with stone soldiers and they keep on bringing different metal objects to be melted in a pit. They're obviously making a weapon for the Overlord."

"Were you caught?" she asked and I told her about the battle with Cole. "Kai!"

"It sounds like he's thinking about joining us." Jay said.

_Maybe._

Skales Jr pulled on my arm sleeve. "Is Cole the person in ninja clothes like yours but black?"

_Oh right! Cole led the attack on the serpentine._ "Yes, the Overlord took over his mind so he's not thinking straight."

"Oh, I guess that makes sense."

"I'm going to find Sensei Wu or Misako."

Nya rolled her eyes and the three of them continued the game. I went to the training room but all I found was a table with a few open scrolls. _If we weren't supposed to see those scrolls they wouldn't be out._ I walked over to the table. There were three scrolls, each were different in most ways but, they all had one thing in common: a figure with a red ninja outfit. _No way..._

* * *

**(** Zane's POV **)**

"You should have gotten rid of Kai when you had the chance." I said to Cole.

A serpentine informed the Overlord that he had let Kai get away and our master was not pleased. Cole ended up with a deep cut under his left eye that would have needed stitches, however, we didn't have the supplies, as well as a few minor cuts. I was currently cleaning out the wounds with what we had.

"He saved my life Tin Can." he replied "What was I supposed to- OW! That stuff stings!" And he moved away.

I had just put more hydrogen peroxided on the cut. I smirked, "If you do not want the injury to get infected I need to finish cleaning it."

"Fine." Cole returned to the spot he was before and glared at me. "Your enjoying this aren't you?"

"It just proves I was right all along." He mumbled something before staying still until I was finished bandaging it. "Done."

"Thanks." he said reluctantly.

I nodded and returned to what I was doing before, reading a book. Cole walked over to the couch and turned on the TV. Then looked at me.

"How long do you think it will take the army to build that weapon for the Overlord?"

_I will never finish this book if he continues to talk._ "About 8 months without interruptions."

"Good, the sooner Kai and the rest of them are gone the better." he changed the channel.

"You did not seem to think that earlier."

"Let that go already!" Cole shouted. "The next time I find Kai I'll bring him to the Overlord."

"Not if I find him first." I replied.

We both returned to what we had been doing before and did not acknowledge the others presence for the rest of the day.


	22. Scrolls

**(** Kai's POV **)**

Laying on the table in front of me were three scrolls. I recognized the first one because it was the same one Misako had shown us before. The same one that said: "Should the Darkness prevail over Light, the power of the Ultimate Spinjitzu Master shall go to his four protectors. As it will then become their duty to save Ninjago." I hadn't looked at it closely before. Gold trimming lined the edge and most of the background was thunder-cloud gray except for a darker black patch with purple eyes, probably the Overlord. Near the bottom were four figures wearing different colored ninja outfits, obviously referring to us. However, the most interesting part was that each of them were surrounded by specks of gold light. _That must show that they have the ultimate spinjitsu master's powers._ Around the ninja were the outlines of stone soldiers. It made sense for the most part, it was our job to defeat the Overlord and save Ninjago.

The next one was mostly dark red and black in a pattern like fire. In the center stood the same red figure from the first scroll and was again surrounded by gold and stone soldiers. There were buildings in the background falling apart due to the flames. _This one doesn't look good._ On the top right corner was a sticky note that read: "The enemy will use a ninja's power against him. When this occurs only the ninja that can fight without force shall succeed." _What is that supposed to mean? I knew some of these didn't make sense right away but this is ridiculous._

The last one didn't have any words with it but the actions spoke for them selves. It was some form of fighting. The red figure had an elemental sword in one hand and there were several drawings showing the movements for the technique. Overall it looked kind of like spinjitsu and with every move the sword got brighter until it reached the last image where the light had disappeared. _I might as well see what this does._ I completed each move but nothing happened so I tried it two more times and still nothing. _It's probably nothing anyway, besides I still need to find Sensei Wu._

I went down the hall to Dr Julien's room was and sure enough they were in there. Sensei and Misako were sitting on chairs next to the bed and Zane's dad was at a table working on a project on the other side of the room. By the looks of things Garmadon hadn't moved at all. He had both arms in casts and a couple of stitches on his face but, he didn't look nearly as bad as when we found him. I entered the room quietly and stood by them they were obviously worried about him.

"Has he woken up yet?" I asked, breaking the silence in the room.

"No." Sensei replied in a worried tone. "Did you find any thing on your walk?"

"Yes actually." I explained how I had come across the building with the Overlord's forces surrounding it, what I saw inside it and the fight with Cole.

Misako spoke, her voice was just as bad as Sensei Wu's was. "He must be building a weapon."

"That's what I believe."

Right after I finished talking there was a groan from the bed and we turned to see Garmadon open his eyes. He looked around until his eyes met the three of us.

"Wh... Where am I?" he asked. His voice was really scratchy and sounded like someone who hadn't spoken in days.

"It's good to see that your awake brother." my teacher said. "You're at our home. Kai and Nya found you."

Garmadon smiled slightly. "I... I'm actually free."

_What is that supposed to mean?_ "How did you get so beat up?"

His smile vanished and was replaced by fear. "The O... Overlord. He found out that one of t... the other ninja were freed and..." He looked down at his arms.

_I knew the Overlord was behind this!_ By the look on Garmadon's face he was terrified even mentioning that monster. Maybe he really isn't evil anymore.

"Your safe now." Misako said.

He looked around the room. "For now."

Dr Julien walked over and saw he was up. "Since your awake we should make sure nothing else is wrong." Zane's dad told Garmadon about his injuries.

"That's the least I would have expected." he stated calmly.

"You should get your rest brother, we will talk tomorrow." Sensei replied.

Garmadon nodded and turned his head to the wall. We left the room and told the others what had just happened. They were just as surprised as we were. I went over what I saw with everyone and Sensei Wu chose what to do.

"So basically nothing!" I yelled. _That doesn't sound like action to me._

"Kai, what he's saying is that we need to find out what they are building so we can plan what to do without blowing up the city." Nya said.

"Ya and while we're watching them they're making a weapon that could destroy all of us!"

"ENOUGH!" Sensei shouted in an angry tone and turned to me. "We shall act when the time is right, but for now you will do as I say."

_I'm not going to be told what to do._ I got up and left to went to my room. _If they aren't going to help, then I'll do it myself._

* * *

**(** Nobodies POV, Fortress of the Overlord **)**

"With Garmadon out-of-the-way I am one step closer to ruling all of Ninjago." the Overlord said to himself. "However, that Ninja of Fire has really become a problem." The dragon paced the room slowly before coming to a sudden stop when there was a knock on the door. "Enter."

General Kozu bowed before him then spoke.

"The nindroid says that it should take 8 months if all goes as planed."

The dragon smirked. "Good. I want the factories to be guarded at all times. If Kai interferes bring him to me."

"As you wish master." he left and shut the door behind him.

"If only there was something I could send after that ninja, but what?" the Overlord looked down at the purple-black smoke coming off his scales and an evil spark lit in his eyes. "That's it!" The smoke formed several figures around the room. "They won't know what hit them."

* * *

**(** Kai's POV, early the next day **)**

I had decided to take matters into my own hands and destroy that building. Obviously no one else was going to do something. I got up with out disturbing anyone and left the dojo. Sticking to the shadows I made my way to the building. There were only a few more streets left before I heard footsteps behind me. _Great, who's following me this time?_ I went into an alley and hid by the wall then waited for the person to come by. the footsteps continued until an arm came into view, I grabbed it and pinned the person against the wall.

"Jay!" I said surprised. "Why were you following me?"

"Could you stop squishing me first?" he replied.

Then I noticed his right side had slammed into the wall and I let him go. "Why were you following me?"

"I was working on a training robot in the training room and saw you leave." Jay answered and put his right hand on his head. "Sensei said we would act later. Believe me I wanted to get out of the dojo just as much as you."

"While we're waiting their planing, I need to stop them before anyone gets hurt."

"Your not going alone then, we're a team." he stated. "Where is the factory?"

"You can't come your injured." _and you'll get in my way._

"Too bad."

_He's not going to give up._ "Fine but stay out-of-the-way."

He nodded in reply and we ran toward the building.


	23. Consequences

**(** Kai's POV **)**

We arrived at the building. There were guards all over the place. _Great, the Overlord knew we'd be here._

"Let us go!"

"The odds of them doing that are only 5%."

_No way._ I looked around and saw Cole and Zane tied up back to back. _How did they get free?_

"I thought you said they were evil now." Jay noted.

"They were last I checked."

Now they were like they had been before except Cole had something below his left eye that looked like a bandage and they were surrounded by stone soldiers.

"We should help them." he said moving closer to the street.

_They could help us now._ "Ok, follow me."

We crossed the street and climbed the building over where they were. It was just far enough away from the factory for no soldiers to come and help the other guards. There were only three of them so it was going to be easy. I nodded to Jay.

"NINJAGO!"

We knocked the soldiers to the side and I cut the rope with my sword.

"They'll come back we need to get out of here." I stated. _I hate running away._

The two of the followed us several blocks into the city. When we got far enough away we paused for a break and took off our masks.

Cole caught his breath and turned to us. "Thanks for helping us."

"No problem." I replied. "How did you two get free and what happened?"

"The Overlord wasn't very happy about Jay being free, as for how we broke his control the hold he had weakened enough to get away." Cole answered.

"However as you could see we hadn't run far before they caught us." Zane added.

_Something doesn't seem right..._

"That sounds legit to me." Jay stated. "We better get back. Sensei is going to be so mad when he finds out you snuck out." He looked at me while he said this.

I rolled my eyes.

"What do you mean?" Cole asked.

"Sensei Wu told me to stay in the dojo and I didn't."

"You're in for it now."

_I don't have to explain my actions to anyone._

"By the Way Kai I'm sorry about the fight yesterday."

_Wait a moment! They remember Jay being freed and the fight; that happened while they were evil. Meaning neither of them should remember it and if they do that means..._ I moved in front of Jay and pointed my sword at Cole and Zane.

"What are you doing?!" Jay yelled.

"They aren't our friends!" I shouted.

The two of them frowned.

"Of course they are!"

"No they aren't!" _He can't be that blind._ "If they were then they wouldn't remember you getting freed, both of them were still evil at the time. Cole would remember the last thing that happened before he was turned evil and Zane would remember fighting off both you and Cole. To add to what I said earlier, the fight I had with Cole was yesterday _while_ he was under the Overlord's control." Jay just looked at me confused. The two "ninja" in front of us clapped sarcastically.

"It was about time you figured it out." "Zane" said. "Certainly took you long enough."

"I thought we might have to spell it out for your puny brains to understand." "Cole" smirked.

The two impostors ran at us.

"Jay, you take Zane I'll handle Cole."

He still seemed surprised but shook his head and nodded. My sword met Cole's and a battle broke out. As I fought with him I had enough time here and there to look over at Jay. He seemed to be having trouble, when he would shoot lightning at Zane he would miss by a few inches. _When we get back to the dojo he needs practice._ After a while both Cole and Zane faded into clouds of purple-black smoke and disappeared.

"I think we're fine for now." I said but there was no response. "Jay?" I turned around and he was on his side. _Oh no. Nya's going to kill me!_

Jay looked fine for the most part and luckily he was still breathing. _That's a relief. Zane must have knocked him out._ I found a bucket of water by a rain gutter on the side of a building and smirked. I took the bucket and dumped the water on Jay. He shot up.

"What was that!"

"You got knocked out." I replied trying not to laugh.

Jay blinked the water out of his eye and stood up slowly. "Great now the bandage is wet and it's itchy."

"Just get a new one when we get back."

"Ok but I'm taking this one off, it's _really_ itchy." he said hesitantly and took it off.

_Whoa..._ It looked bad. The stitches through his eyebrow to just below the cheekbone, the sword had obviously gone through the eyelid to, so it was no wonder that Zane's dad couldn't fix his eye. I looked away.

"We better get going." I stated.

"Ya..."

We raced back to the dojo and Nya was standing in the doorway.

"Would either of you mind telling me where you went?" she asked in an angry tone. "And why are you wet?"

"I heard Kai leave so I followed him." Jay said quickly. "He threw water on me to wake me up when Zane knocked me out."

"Well I wasn't going to just sit around and do nothing!"

"That is exactly what you shall be doing." Sensei stated walking into the room.

"What?"

"I specifically told you to not leave the dojo and you left anyway." he said. "Your going to stay here with my brother while the rest of us check something in the next city over."

"You can't be serious!" I yelled.

"I have made my decision Kai." Sensei Wu replied.

_That makes no sense!_ "Why isn't Jay getting punished?"

"Hey!"

"He followed you to keep you out of trouble. Your staying here and that's final."

"Yes Sensei." I reluctantly replied.

* * *


	24. Chapter 24

**(** Kai's POV **)**

It wasn't fair! While everyone else left, I was stuck watching Garmadon. It had been about fifteen minutes. I sat on the other side of the room staring at a wall. Neither of us said a word probably because we didn't want the other one to yell. It was eerily quiet, the only sound was coming from the various projects Dr Julien had around the room. Garmadon was siting up slightly in the bed and was looking around the room. Every couple of minutes we would end up looking right at each other. _This is becoming boring, might as well say something._

"What did you find out about that factory?" Garmadon asked.

"Nothing."

"Did anything happen?" he seemed interested in the conversation.

"Ya." I replied. "There were some shape shifting clouds that looked like Cole and Zane."

"So you never got to the building then?" I shook my head. "What would you have done when you got there?"

I paused. "I didn't think about that. Probably just destroy the building to let the Overlord know that I won't rest until he pays."

Garmadon shivered slightly at the mention of the Overlord and winced in the process. "Revenge is a dangerous path Kai."

_Like I haven't heard that before._ "That's easy for you to say, you can barely move."

"And once I'm healed I will only fight for good." he said before his voice went soft. "Lloyd would want it that way."

I looked up at him and he was close to tears. Garmadon really is good I guess. "He was a brave kid..."

We talked back and forth for an hour until...

"I still don't understand Sensei's motives for doing nothing."

"My brother has his reasons and whatever he decides is in the best interest of everyone." he answered. "Even if it appears otherwise"

"I still say that I could have gotten valuable information if I was out there."

Garmadon hesitated and smiled. "Then you should go and if Wu asks, I told you to."

"Really?" _This is too good to be true._

"Yes, but I would appreciate it if you could be back before five. That is when they will return."

I narrowed my eyes. "What's the catch?"

"Be back before five and let me know what you find." he said. "Besides, I was planing on taking a nap."

_If I get out of here it works for me._ "Alright, deal."

* * *

**(** Jay's POV **)**

We walked out of the city to where they kept the dragon and flew to the nearby city. The wind was refreshing, I almost forgot it. Sensei said there was a group of people we needed to meet up with and they would want to see us. The battle with the shape shifting creature had actually got to me. I knew I had been off-balance and if I had done spinjitsu I might have crashed into a wall. Dr Julien told me that it could use some air so he didn't put a new bandage over it. I decided not to put my mask on so I'd be able to see a little better as well. Now all my friends were avoiding a conversation with me. Skales Jr, I'm still weird-ed out by that, would glance at me every few minutes.

Nya was the only one who would talk to me but even then she would barely look at me and would keep her replies short. I tried telling a couple jokes but it didn't lighten the mood. I turned to Nya, who was sitting on my right with her head on her knees, she was staring off into the distance as the scenery went by fast, her short hair blew in the wind and she looked kind of sad. It made my heart ache when she got upset even if it wasn't very often. _I need to cheer her up._

"I got a joke. Why was the students report card wet?"

"I don't know, why?" she replied

"Because his grades were below C-level"

She smiled quickly but it didn't last long.

"Do you think Kai will stay in the dojo?" I asked even though I knew the answer.

She sighed, "I doubt it."

"Anything interesting happen while I wasn't here?" I had been freed 4 days ago and they didn't tell me much of what happened over the last 7 months.

"Not really, other than a few fights here and there." Nya replied, her tone didn't change.

"Oh," I said. "Is something wrong?"

She turned to me. "You and Kai could have gotten yourselves hurt or worse. What were you thinking?"

"Ya... I had planed just to drag Kai back to the dojo but he would have snuck out again anyway." I replied. " Then I figured if he was going get in a fight he might need back up."

"Thank you for trying to knock some sense into him but next time leave it to me." Nya stated with a smile.

I smiled and nodded back.

"We're here." Sensei Wu called out over the wind.

I looked over the side of the dragon as the dark clouds cleared. In front of us was a small town on the side of a mountain, Jamanakai Village. _It has really been a long time since we came here._ The dragon landed on a building without making it fall apart too much. We got down and I took a closer look around. Everything had been so lively but now I couldn't find anyone besides us. The roofs used to be bright red and the lanterns would glow orange but they were just as gray as the city was. Then there was the fountain in the center of the square. It used to be bright white with clear blue water running down it into streams that spread throughout the village but now it was a light gray with eerie purple smoke rolling out of it, through the ditches, covering everything in an ominous feeling.

_It doesn't look like anybody would be here._

"Th-this place is c-creepy." Skales Jr said shakily and moved closer to Nya, who was still on my right side.

"Are you sure we're in the right place Sensei?" I asked.

"Absolutely." he stated. "Now, Misako, Dr Julien and I are going to get some tea. I'm almost out."

"We'll be back in a few minutes." Misako said calmly before following Sensei Wu and Dr Julian into the fog.

_They can't be serious._ The three of them disappear completely. _Ok. They're serious!_

"Wh-what should w-we do n-now?" the hypnobrai asked.

"Let's stay here and wait for them." Nya suggested.

"Sounds good to me." I took in my surroundings. Gray buildings, gray ground, purple smoke, and shadowy figures. _Wait, what?!_ I turned back but nothing was there. "Did you two see that?"

"Jay, your scaring him." she replied. "Stop joking around while we're here, ok?"

"I'm not joking Nya. I thought I saw someone." Then I remembered something. "Didn't Sensei Wu say there would be people here that would want to see us?"


	25. Jamanakai Village

**(** Still Jay's POV **)**

"Ya, but..." Nya started before narrowing her eyes into the fog.

I turned back to the space in front of us and went over the area again. This time there were several shadowy figures, each of them were moving closer to us. Now is as good a time as any to try spinjitsu. I got ready but one of the figures talked.

"Jay?"

I froze in place. "D-dad?" _It can't be, I know Kai said they got out of the city safely but this is pretty far away. The flight was at least an hour, that's several miles._ Sure enough my dad stepped through the fog and my mom was right behind him.

"Oh, Jay!" They both yelled and gave me a hug.

"Where have you been? Your father and I were so worried."

_They hadn't told them I had gotten turned evil?_ "Um..."

"What happened to your eye?!" my mom gasped when she let go.

"I helped Kai and a stone soldier got me - but I'm honestly fine!" I added quickly.

They looked at each other.

"If you say so son but, try not to get hurt worse." my dad said.

I smiled in relief.

"Who is this?" my mom asked. She must have noticed the young hypnobrai behind Nya.

"His name is Skales Jr." Nya replied.

He waved shyly to my parents and they waved back.

My dad turned to me. "Shouldn't he be with his parents or other serpentine?"

"They are under the Overlord's control." Skales Jr answered softly.

"Oh you poor child." my mom said. "I hope my son and his friends are taking good care of you."

"They have. Jay was freed four days ago and he has been really nice."

My parents looked confused.

"What does he mean "freed"?" my dad asked.

Nya explained what happened and they didn't seem that upset. We talked for a while. They told us what has happened since they were dropped off here. Surprisingly there were a lot of people here. There was the owner of Doomsday Comics, Cole's dad, Gale the news reporter, quite a few of the kids from Darkles Boarding school and somewhere around 45 other people lived here now. The people who lived in Jamanakai Village before had either become evil and went to Ninjago City or had been in houses and weren't turned evil. _Wow, looks like a lot happened while I was gone._

"Why isn't Kai with you?" my mom asked.

"He's grounded." I replied. _That's basically what it is._

My dad looked at us confused. "What do you mean?"

"My brother decided to sneak out to find information on the Overlord and almost got him and Jay caught."

"Really!" They turned to me.

"I saw him sneak out and thought he might need back up when he got into a fight."

"Well what ever the reason was son, you need to be more careful." my dad said.

I nodded. About five minutes later Sensei Wu, Misako and, Dr Julien came back through the fog. They each had a bag in one had and Sensei had a teapot in the other. _This whole trip was to get, tea. It took them almost an hour, just to get tea._

"It's nice to see you three found Jay's parents." Sensei said with a smile. "How are you two doing?"

"Oh great. There haven't been any stone soldier sightings in the last five months." my mom replied.

My dad nodded. "Yes siree. Some people are still coming here from time to time as well."

"Has anyone mentioned anything about the other villages?" Dr Julien asked.

"Not yet, but we'll let all of you know when we do."

"Thank you." Sensei turned to the three of us. "We should return to the dojo, it is getting late."

I looked at the sky. It had to be about three in the afternoon. We all said goodbye as we got on the dragon. After a few minutes of flying I heard Nya say something.

"My brother is going to get it from me if he isn't there when we get back." she said under her breath.

_Knowing Kai he's halfway across Ninjago city._

* * *

**(** Back to Kai's POV **)**

The streets were crowded with stone soldiers, serpentine, and people under the Overlord's control. I finally made it to the building but the place was guarded even more than last time! Great, now what am I supposed to do?

"More soldiers are needed at the factory on the west side of the city." a stone soldier called out.

_So there are more. I knew it!_

Several warriors gathered into a group and left in the direction of the other building. I followed for about 45 minutes until we finally arrived at the building. It was double the size of the other one and with about 50 guards on the outside. _That means there's probably 150 to 200 of them inside._

"When do you think the weapon will be finished?" a fangpyre asked.

"Last I heard in 8 months." a constrictai replied.

_Now that I know the date, all I need are some blueprints of the machine._ I turned to the building. _And I know the perfect place to look._ With part of a plan in my head I made my way to the building. Surprisingly enough, with how many of the Overlord's forces were there, none of them saw me. I stayed out of sight and managed to look around. This place had a similar setup as the other factory but instead of one conveyor belt there were three. Looking around some more I found they stone army General asleep at a desk a few feet from were I was and on the desk were several papers. _One of those is bound to be the plans._ I snuck over to the table and went through the papers until I found what I needed. _Bingo._

"Intruder! Intruder! Ninja sighted!"

_Just my luck._ I put the papers in my pocket, pulled out my sword and ran to the door. "NINJAGO!" Within seconds I was outside, knocking down every enemy around me. I ran at least ten blocks before I was nobody was following me. _That should be far enough._ I looked down at the watch on my wrist, I had left about 1:00 pm now it was 3:17. _There's no point in staying out here._ I looked around and made my way back to the dojo. It took longer than normal because I was making sure I wasn't being followed. Just like Garmadon said the others hadn't come back yet. I went to the room wear he was and turns out he was awake.

"Your back already?"

"Ya, I found some blueprints of the machine they are building." I replied. "I thought you were going to take a nap."

"I did." Garmadon explained. "How about we look at those plans?"

"Why are you so interested in them?"

"Because I would like to know if your suspicions about them were true." he replied calmly. "It was part of the deal."

_That's true._ "Fine."

We went over the papers I got. The weapon looked like the one on the Dark Island and apparently it will shoot dark matter like the first one did. Only this one was bigger. About 5 stories tall and half a city block wide. Just by moving down a street it would crush the houses on either side under the wheels and cause the houses by them to collapse. I also happened to grab a list of where the five other factories and some bases were located. _Go figure._ The third was a list of takeout food from McDonald's. _Seriously?_ Including a Happy Meal with: "For General Kozu. Hands off!" written in red marker. The last was a map of Ninjago covered in gray pencil lead representing the area the Overlord control. Most of the page was gray. _I hadn't realized Overlord controlled so much of ninjago already._

"My brother and the others will want to see these." Garmadon stated.

"If they don't yell at me for leaving first."

"You went outside!?" Nya yelled from the doorway Jay walked up behind her.

"When did you get back?" I asked.

"Five minutes ago." she responded. "You better have a good explanation for this

"Oh, I did." I stated. "All of Ninjago is in danger and I'm not going to sit back and do nothing, I got some important information that will give us a better chance of defeating them." I gave the papers to Nya and Jay who looked over them in a serious way, until it came to one of the pages, at that point Jay burst out laughing.

"Who knew stone soldiers liked fast food."

"Ya. So where did you guys go?" I asked.

Nya answered me. "Jamanakai Village."

_That's where we took everyone to get away from the city before Nya was freed._

"I saw my parents" Jay added, his tone changed a little.

"How did that go?"

"They didn't seem too upset." he stated.

That's lucky.

Nya shuffled through the papers again. "If you hadn't gotten good information I would have slapped you so hard. We should show these to Sensei."

"What is it you need to show me?" he asked when he stepped through the doorway.

"Hello Wu." Garmadon said.

"How are you?" Sensei asked.

"Good. I sent Kai to find some information on the... stone army and what he found is very important."

Sensei turned to me and glared. "I will look at them tomorrow. We should all get some rest."

_Figures._ We all said goodnight and went to our rooms. _I need to get rid of those factories, but how?_


	26. Skales Jr

**(** Zane's POV, about 3 months later **)**

Cole challenged me to a round of "Fist to Face" and I won three times in a row.

"You cheated!" he shouted angrily.

"How would I do that?" I asked.

"Your a robot, you probably reprogrammed the game."

"I don't recall doing that." I replied calmly and walked over to my chair on the far side of the room. "Now if you will excuse me, I shall return to reading my book."

Cole muttered something under his breath and started another round by himself. The door opened 5.25 minutes after I continued reading and a serpentine entered.

"The Overlord wants you both to patrol the city." the Fangpyre said. "Kai has been stirring up trouble."

"Finally, something to do." the ninja of earth stated.

_At least now I won't be forced to listen to Cole complain_. We gathered several stone soldiers and serpentine into two groups then marched through the streets.

"Hey Zane, want to make a bet?"

"Explain."

"Whoever can catch and bring Kai to the Overlord wins." Cole stated.

"What are the consequences?" I asked.

"The loser needs to do all the cleaning for a month and run errands for the winner, without questions." he said confidently. "Are you in?"

_This will be easy._ "Yes, I'm in."

* * *

**(** Kai's POV **)**

Ever since I found the papers Sensei Wu decided it would be a good idea to keep a eye on the factories. I would still sneak into one once or twice a week and mess with the machines; melting the conveyor belts so they can't move, rerouting the groups carrying metal and melting the doors shut. Jay got some more training so that he can actually fight when he needs to and since I was trained to deal with Hypnobrai I got to teach him a few lessons.

Jay landed hard on his back. "I don't think the training is helping." he said rubbing the back of his head and got up.

"You need to pay more attention to your surroundings without relying on your eyes." I replied. _Or eye in your case._

"I need more practice with the sword anyway, can't we take a break from the whole 'never let your guard down' thing?"

"As much as I would rather just attack the stone army, Sensei doesn't want us to fight them unless there's no other choice." _I still say it isn't making defeating the Overlord easier._ "But I guess we could before Nya is finished with what she is working on and I can finally get out of this dojo."

"We sabotaged 4 trucks from reaching factories yesterday." He pulled out his blue sword and lightning sparked off of it. "And last week you melted the metal framing to one of the factories, making it collapse, plus the machines on the inside of several others. Just doing that set them all back a month."

"That doesn't stop them from finishing the weapon." I stated, pulling out my sword which was engulfed in red and orange flames. "Ready?"

"Ready."

Jay had gotten a lot better at spinjitsu and was finally able to do it like he used to but he still needed practice with a sword since he was used to nunchucks. We practiced for another hour until Nya came in.

"Are you two done yet? We need to head out before it gets dark."

"Ya, Jay just wanted some sword practice." I said. "What does Sensei want us to do this time?"

"We need to check for more people on the other side of the city, we haven't gone there in a while." she replied.

"Sounds good to me." Jay stated and put his sword away.

The sooner we get out of here the better. "Is Skales Jr awake?. We might want to say goodbye really quick if he is."

"No he's still sleeping. He was training like crazy yesterday, I'm not surprised he's not up." Nya said. "We should go before anyone else wakes up."

* * *

**(** Flashback, Skales Jr's POV **)**

I sat in front of the huge door that lead to the outside world. Kai and Nya were supposed to come at any minute.

"Skaless Jr. Skaless Jr, where are you?"

"I'm over here mommy." I replied. "I'm just waiting for Kai, it's been a week and he said he'd teach me some sword fighting next time they came."

She smiled. "It'sss getting late. They will come tomorrow. Humansss need their ssleep just as much as we do."

"But, I'm not tired." I yawned.

"Your mother isss right." My dad said as he slithered over to us. "You could fall asleep during their vissit if you stay up. We wake you up when they get here."

"Promise?" I asked.

"Promise." they replied.

I followed them through the paths to our home. The older serpentine, like Uncle Fangtom my dad's best friend, worked very hard to make this place a home after they were trapped down here. I've heard stories of when the 4 tribes didn't get along but I can't believe it. Everyone was going into their homes and the green glow in the walls and ground dimmed down. I curled up in bed and my dad tucked me in.

"Night daddy." I said.

"Goodnight ssson."

I smiled and closed my eyes. After what felt like only a couple minutes later I heard screaming. _What's that?_ I rubbed my eyes and checked what was going. Everyone was running around and in the entrance was a bunch of humans with red hats. Wait not humans, Kai said there were stone soldiers out there and the way he said they looked fit the people by the door. They all ran in and started shooting dark purple stuff everywhere, some even got a few serpentine. _Where are mom and dad?_

"Attack the intrudersss, my fellow ssserpentine! Attack!" my dad yelled over the noise. "We need to protect the young!"

"Daddy! What is happening?" I asked.

"Ssson! What are you doing out here?!" he shouted in surprise and pushed me toward our house.

"But why? What's going on?"

"We can't hold them off for very much longer." Skalidor said as he slithered over to us. "They have already taken most of uss. Including Selma."

My dad and I gasped.

"No..." I said softly.

My dad looked down at me. "You need to hide Skales Jr. I'll find you after the battle. Sstay hidden and don't come out."

"But-"

"Pleasse ssson." he interrupted.

I nodded and hugged him. "See you soon."

"Sssee you sssoon." my dad repeated.

I hid in the house but poked my head out so I could see what was going on. Serpentine were running everywhere. Some managed to make it out but most got hit by the purple goo and were chasing other serpentine around. A while later I could only see 5 serpentine that weren't evil, one of them being my dad. They were able to avoid most of the shots but my dad ended up being the last serpentine standing.

"Well, well, well. I'm very disappointed in you Skales. I thought 'the leader of the serpentine' would put up more of a fight." a figure in clothes like Kai's but black said as he walked up to my dad.

"We gave up fighting a long time ago but that doesssn't mean we wouldn't defend our home." dad replied then looked up at the human and looked shocked. "Cole? Kai sssaid you were under the Overlord'ss power but-"

"Oh, Shut-up! Are there any other serpentine here? Where are they hiding?" the human, I guess his name was Cole, shouted.

_Oh no!_

My dad glared at him. "There isss no one left. And even if there were, I ssserioussly doubt I would tell you!"

Cole scowled and looked at the stone soldiers. "You check if there are anymore of his kind and you two bring him with us. I might be able to get answers from him about my _friend_ Kai." he smirked.

The soldiers bowed and did what they were told. I quickly found a better spot to hide before the stone soldier came in the house. It looked around and knocked over tons of the things around the house, walked right by where I was and left.

"I found no other serpentine. All of them are now under your control." I heard it say faintly.

"What about the ones that escaped?" Cole asked.

"We shall track them down and bring them to you."

"Excellent. Lets get out of this sewer. It reeks down here." They all laughed and it faded as they got further away.

_I can't believe it... Their all gone._ I looked around the corner and gasped. The ground was now gray and there were puddles of purple-black stuff everywhere. Most of the green lights were now gray and the river was gray too. Some of the pointy rocks that hung from the ceiling and poked out of the ground were broken. A few of the other houses were broken and all over the place. Everything was gone. The serpentine had worked very hard to make this place and now everything was ruined. I sat in the dim light for hours but I didn't make a sound or move from my hiding spot until I heard something.

"Skales? Fangtom? Anyone here?"

_Is that Nya?_

"Nya, this looks like Dark Matter."

_That sounds like Kai._

"Your right. That means the stone army was down here." Nya said.

"Great. That's just what we need. Is anybody here? Selma? Skales Jr?" Kai called out.

_It is them!_


	27. Costume Party

**(** Kai's POV **)**

"It's been an hour." I said. "We should see if there are any trucks of supplies heading to one of the factories."

"Or." Nya replied. "We spy on the army to get new information."

"I agree with Nya on this." Jay added.

"Fine."

We walked in the shadows of the buildings and found several serpentine and stone soldiers gathering humans together. I would have over looked it if they were evil but none of them were. _Where did they all come from_? We searched the city at least a hundred times by now. The Overlord must have been invading other parts of Ninjago and bringing people here to work for him. there had to be about 20 of them and only 10 or 15 guards.

"We need to free those people." I whispered to Nya and Jay.

"Do you have a plan?" Nya asked.

"Yup, but your going to need to trust me."

"Why do I get the feeling this won't end well?" Jay said.

"My plans aren't that bad!" I replied almost forgetting we were supposed to be quiet. Luckily the stone soldiers didn't notice. "The plan is simple. I'll distract the soldiers and you two help those people escape. Any questions?"

"Ya, are you sure it will work?" Jay asked.

"I'm pretty sure." _It's not like things can get any worse._

"It's worth a shot." my sister stated. "Where do we take them?"

"As far away as you can get, maybe hide in a building until I come but don't take them to the dojo it would be obvious where we live." I replied.

"Ok. Why don't we meet up at the costume store by the old apartments?"

"That's ok with me. I'll see you two in a few minutes."

I turned back to the army. _How should I distract them?_ The buildings around here were falling apart and looked like they might collapse at any moment. That will work. I snuck over to get a clear view of the building and sent a blast of fire at one of the walls. There was a loud bang as the bricks fell apart and the top of the building crashed to the ground. Good news, no one was in the way. Bad news, I hope someone had car insurance. Also I got all of the soldiers attention. _Maybe I didn't think this plan through all the way._

* * *

(Jay's POV)

Nya and I watched Kai distract the soldiers and got closer the people the army had caught. We told them to follow us quietly and got out of there as fast as possible. They were really happy to get away from the soldiers. It took about fifteen or twenty minutes to get to the costume shop.

"You will all be safe here for now but don't go outside until we give the ok." Nya said to the crowd.

"Where do you think the stone soldiers got them?" I asked her.

"I don't know." she replied. "We should talk to them and see if we can find out. You go that way and I'll go this way."

I walked through the aisles until I found a small group of three people. _They should work._

"Hey, can I ask you a few questions?"

They turned to me for a second then quickly looked at something else.

"Uh... We're kinda busy. Maybe later." one of them replied still not looking at me.

"Oh ok." I answered and left the area. _I wonder what all of that was about._

I walked around and asked a few more people but ended up getting similar answers. _What is with everyone today? Why won't any of them talk to me? I'm over thinking it, there's nothing wrong. I should find Nya._

"I'm glad they saved us in all but that Jay person is weird." someone said.

"I know right." a different person replied. "Maybe it's his missing eye."

"No duh guineas." a third one stated. "I say the sooner we get out of here the better."

"Ya if I have to stay in this creepy store any longer I'm going to go insane." The second one said.

"Same here." the first replied and all three of them started laughing.

I quickly walked away. What was their deal? We saved them from being turned into mindless zombies for the Overlord to control. They should be thanking us. I was so caught up in my thoughts that I didn't watch where I was going and ran into a mirror. I stared at my reflection. It's not like I hadn't looked at myself in a mirror since I was freed but I hadn't thought of the scar in that way before. It started from above my right eyebrow and ended a little bit below where my eye would be. To be honest the scar was really obvious. I mean you could probably see it from across a room. Nya and the others never made a big deal about it. Even my parents didn't react that badly to the scar. So why was this any different? _I'm probably over thinking things again._

"Jay there you are." Nya said. "What are you doing back here?"

_Just play it cool. There's no need to make her worried_. "I was trying to find a costume for Halloween." I replied then quickly looked around, saw a eye-patch and put it on. "How about a pirate?"

She laughed a little. "Very funny Jay but we need to keep an eye out for Kai so he can tell us what the rest of the plan is."

"Ok, but can I keep the eye-patch?" I asked. "I think it suits me."

"Sure if you want." she smiled.

A woman came up to us. "Do either of you know someone in a red ninja outfit?"

"That's my brother, Kai." Nya stated. "Come on Jay."

"Coming!" _With any luck we can return these people to where they live before the end of this week._


	28. Chapter 28

**(** Kai's POV **)**

_Ok think, I just need to distract these stone soldiers long enough for Nya and Jay to get those people out of here._ On my right side I noticed that a building was falling apart. _That will work._ I took out my sword and shot fire at it; a large piece of the building fell off, crushing two stone soldiers and a car. The soldiers turned to me.

"Ninja! Attack!" the leader of the soldiers yelled.

They all ran at me, leaving the pedestrians unguarded. _This won't take long_. I dodged few of them here and a few of them there, then set the rest on fire.

"Your making this too easy." I stated.

"Then let us make this more interesting."

I turned around and Zane was standing there. _Great._ "What do you want?"

"It is nice to see you too Kai." he smirked. "To answer your question I made a deal with someone I plan to keep."

Before I could tell what happened Zane shot ice at me with his sword and it scraped my right arm. _Well I guess he's serious about this_. I quickly shot fire back at him then did spinjitsu but, Zane did the same thing. The stone soldiers watched from the sidewalk and swear at one moment I saw one with popcorn.

"If you were strong enough to defeat me you wound have done so by now." Zane said as our swords met. "You and I both know you do not stand a chance."

"I wouldn't be so sure." I replied. "In case you don't remember, I don't give up easily"

Zane changed the subject. "How far away do you think our friends have gotten?"

"I don't know what your talking about." I replied dodging an attack.

"You can not expect me to believe you came alone if my prisoners escaped."

"What did you want with those people anyway?"

"Bait. I assumed you would see them and try to rescue them." Zane smirked again. "Your sister and her boyfriend are in for a big surprise."

_This can't be good._ He trapped me in ice. _Again, really? He probably doesn't remember what element I control._ I let my hands warmup and melt the ice but it was still slow. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"I can not tell you my whole plan but I will tell you this, those "people" you "rescued" are not what they seem." He turned to the soldiers and they6 quickly got to their feet. "Bring him with us."

The ice around me cracked a few times. _Finally!_ I broke out of the ice, quickly punched Zane in the face, making him discombobulated. Then did spinjitsu and knocking the stone soldiers out of my way. "Nice try Zane, better luck next time!" I ran a few blocks away then just walked instead. _Lost them. What did he mean the people we rescued weren't what they seem?_ Then it hit me. _Nya and Jay are in danger! I need to get to them before something happens_.

* * *

About 20 minutes later...

I walked through the costume shop door and everyone stared at me.

"Where are Nya and Jay?" I asked.

"Their around here somewhere. Who are you?" a guy asked.

_The person who saved your sorry but._ "Their friend."

"I'll go get them" a woman said.

I nodded and a couple minutes later Nya and Jay appeared

"Kai their you are." Nya said. "Why are you cover in frost and wet?"

"Ran into Zane. I need to talk to you two." I turned to Jay. "Why are you wearing a eye-patch?"

He shrugged. "I think it looks cool."

"Whatever. We need to get out of here."

"What about these people?" Nya asked.

"That's just it." I stated. "Their not human."


	29. Chapter 29

"What are you talking about?" Nya asked.

"Remember how a few months ago Jay and I ran into cloud-clone things of Zane and Cole?"

"So your saying that these people are nothing more than smoke."

I nodded and glanced over at the "people", they were all watching us very closely.

"Exactly. I have a plan so just follow my lead." I turned to the "people". _This better work._ "We'll be right back, just need to check something on the other side of the city." The three of us moved to the door but it was blocked by two of them.

"I'm afraid we cant allow you to leave." they all stated before their eyes turned purple. One by one they all turned into clouds of smoke.

"See, I told you didn't I?"

Nya glared at me. "I don't think now is the right time to get cocky Kai!"

_Fine, I'll bring it up later._ The purple smoke settled until they looked like exact copies of the three of us.

"Uh, anyone else seeing double? Or triple?" Jay joked.

"Anyone else seeing double?" the other Jays said, sounding exactly like him.

_As if it wasn't bad enough having one of him._ "New plan. Don't get separated and take down those clones." I pulled out my sword and the copies did the same.

"That's your plan?" Nya asked.

"Do you have a better one?"

Before she could answer they all attacked at once. I blocked several swords and dogged their attacks but we weren't able to stay together for very long. The clones not only looked like us but could fight like us too. We could easily confuse them for each other. I lit flames in my left hand then shot it at a few clones of me and they disappeared completely. _Looks like I know how to get rid of the copies._ I put away my sword and took care of the rest of my clones.

That only left the twelve other possible ones and they weren't making it easy. There were Jay vs Jay, Nya vs Nya and Nya vs Jay. None of them seemed to notice that I had stopped fighting. _How am I supposed to tell the difference? Knowing Jay he wouldn't fight Nya, even if she was a clone, so those two are out. I better not be wrong about this._ I shot fire at both Jays and they burst into flames.

"You have no idea how long I've wanted to do that." I smirked.

"What if that hit me!" the last four Jays exclaimed.

"Then I'd know which one was you." I turned my attention to the two Nyas that were running at me. _These two are most likely clones._ "Nya, feel free to lecture me for being reckless when this is over." Then a shot them both with fire and they disappeared.

"The whole walk home." she replied from somewhere in the room.

I watched the way they all fought and finally narrowed it down to two possibilities each but I couldn't tell where the last two were. _The clones are basically smoke so that would mean water could possibly go through them. Makes sense to me._ I shot fire at a sprinkler and it immediately turned on, drenching the entire room.

"I thought we were on main street not rain street." Jay laughed.

"Next time try to think of something that doesn't end with all of us soaked from head to toe." my sister said moving her hair out of her eyes.

"Honestly I didn't think that would work." I replied. "Are either of you hurt?"

"A few scrapes but nothing serious."

"Same here." Jay stated. "Why didn't the sprinklers go on earlier?" We shrugged.

"Are you ok?" my sister asked.

I looked at the scratch Zane gave me when we fought earlier. There was a little dry blood on it but it wasn't deep. "Ya I'm fine."

"Good." she said before slapping me across the face.

"What was that for?!"

"Next time don't be so reckless! You could have not only hurt both of us but also caused the whole building to catch on fire with us inside!" Nya said.

"But I didn't, did I? Plus we're safe so everything is ok." I replied.

She was about to say something when Jay interrupted her. "Could we continue this conversation when we aren't standing in the middle of a flooded costume shop with the possibility of getting colds?"

She sighed. "He's right. It's going to be dark soon and the army likes to patrol this area around this time. We aren't done talking about this."

"Sure we aren't." I whispered to myself.

We were so wet when we left that our footprints showed up as we walked. By the time we made it back to the dojo it was dark and our footprints didn't show as much. Skales Jr, Misako, Sensei and Garmadon were all watching TV when we came in.

"What happened to three?" Garmadon asked.

"We saved some people that turned out to be evil clones and Kai melted them with the sprinklers." Jay said.

The four of them stared at us in surprise.

"That is, interesting." Sensei Wu replied. "You will tell us about the mission in the morning. For now, get some dry clothes on you three smell like wet dog."

"Yes Sensei."

We moved further into the dojo.

"Actually, Kai I need to talk to you."

_What is it this time?_ "Sure."

I followed him to the training room and sat down.

"Kai, as leader it is your job to guide your team through the missions safely."

"No one got hurt though."

"That may be true but I was not talking about your regular missions." His eyes narrowed. "I was referring to when you sneak out of the dojo without approval."

"Well I'm not going to just sit here while they build weapons to destroy all of Ninjago! It's almost been a whole year since the Overlord took over and its because of us taking out those factories that we still stand a chance!" I stated. "Now you want us to stop-"

"I never said that." Sensei replied in a calm voice. "In fact. I agree that your actions, while being overly reckless at times, are working in our favor. However I would like you to keep in mind that safety is more important than destroying a few factories here and there."

Did he seriously agree with me? "Of-course I know that."

"Good, now get some rest." He stood-up and walked to the door. "You have a long day tomorrow."

"Yes Sensei." I replied and went to my room. _It's hard to believe that almost a year ago we were training Lloyd and now we're trying to stop the Overlord from controlling all of Ninjago._


	30. Chapter 30

**(** Kai's POV **)**

The tornado around me disappeared and I landed on my face for the third or fourth time that morning.

"Give it up Kai." Jay stated from the side of the room. "What ever your trying to do won't work."

I glared at him. It wasn't the first time I tried the fighting style on the scroll and failed. "That's what you think."

"All I'm saying is your wasting your time."

I roll my eyes. "Fine. You need more practice anyway. I notice you weren't shocking any of the clones with your lightning yesterday, we'll start there."

"Ok." he stated about to pull out his sword.

"Without your weapon. You won't always have time to pull it out in a fight."

Jay smirked. "Alright but you asked for it." He held out his right hand like he was going to throw something at me but only a few small sparks came from his hand before falling to the ground.

"What was that supposed to be?" I mocked.

"I don't know, that usually works." Jay sounded surprised and tried again but this time nothing happened. "What's going on?"

"Wait your serious?"

"Of course I'm being serious!"

_That's new._ "Maybe your not concentrating hard enough."

"I am concentrating!" he stated in a panicked tone as he continued trying to make lightning shoot out of his hand. "Why isn't this working?!"

Nya entered the room. "What's going on?"

"Training." I answered. "And Jays powers are acting up."

"Really, how?"

"I keep trying to shoot lightning but nothing is happening?!" He was panicking.

Nya walked up to him and put her hand on his shoulder. "Calm down Jay, Sensei Wu will know what to do. Speaking of whom, he asked me to come and get you Kai"

"Why?"

"Since Garmadon is on our side now he will need a tour of the city and Sensei wants you to show him around."

"Why can't he do it?" I asked.

"Because he has other things to do and thinks you two need to start getting along." she answered.

"What is that supposed to mean!" _He was the freaken lord of darkness, tried to take over Ninjago multiple times, and is the reason we're in this mess to begin with! Of-course I'm going to have an attitude towards him!_

"He doesn't like the way your both acting. The fact of the matter is that Garmadon is a part of our team now and a team works together."

_I still don't see any point to this._ I walked out of the training room and down the hall to Sensei's room but just before I knocked I heard someone talking.

"-but Kai! Even Jay would be more bearable than him!" Garmadon's voice stated.

_That's uncalled for!_

"I can not see why you or Misako will not take me if your so concerned."

Sensei laughed. "We have other things to attend to."

"Then Jay or Nya, or both of them for all I care!"

"Garmadon, your acting like a child." Misako said.

"I am not." he replied. "Kai's stubborn, hotheaded, reckless and is-"

"Just like you were at that age?" Sensei Wu interrupted and his brother shut-up. "If my memory serves correct, you were more stubborn than Kai is."

_I'm not sure if I should be offended by that or not._

"That is completely different." Garmadon stated. "Not to mention I grew out of that."

"If that were true we wouldn't be having this conversation." he said calmly, taking a sip of tea.

_He has a point._

"B-but I-"

"Give Kai a chance to prove himself." Sensei interrupted. "When the moment rises, Kai does what is right."

"I do not doubt that, it's just..." Garmadon sighed. "I trust you both and if you think this is the right thing to do then I'll do it."

"There is something else on your mind, isn't there?" Misako asked.

"No, it doesn't matter. If Kai is going to show me any of the city, we should leave now." Foot steps came to the door.

"We will discuss that later." Sensei said. "I asked Nya to inform Kai about this so he should be ready."

I knocked on the door. "Hey Garmadon are you coming or not we don't have all day." _With any luck they won't know I was eavesdropping._

"Yes I'm coming!" He opened the door. "We will be back in a few hours."

"Ok. Try not to cause too much trouble Kai." Sensei Wu replied.

"What makes you think I'll get in trouble?" He just stared at me. I roll my eyes. "Fine, but I can't make any promises."

He nodded. "Don't be out there all day."

"Alright see ya."

We left the dojo and I started the tour by showing Garmadon the main places we get food and other supplies. The stores were abandoned not long after the Overlord took over. We didn't keep everything to ourselves, in fact most of what we gather gets sent to places like Jamanakai village so they don't have to rely on just what they can grow there. I also took him to some of the places that people within the city, that aren't evil, gather but there aren't that many because most of them left with the rest of the crowd.

Then it came down to my favorite part, the known stone soldier and serpentine bases and factories. The first three bases we went to didn't have that much activity, I only saw about 25 to 30 soldiers and serpentine, but the last two had close to 60 or 70 soldiers walking around. The factories were a different story. We went to a total of 7 and there were so many soldiers and serpentine at each of them that I couldn't even estimate. The last one we went to was one of the largest, I'd say about as wide as two football fields and as long as three, it was also the most packed. I didn't think there were that many stone soldiers or serpentine but, then again, the majority of the city was turned to darkness along with most of the people living there. So it would make sense that the Overlord had those people work for him. I watched the building closely and it looked like they were bringing pieces of a big machine or multiple machines.

_What are they up to this time?_ "I'm going to check something out." I told Garmadon.

"Where do you think your going? You can not just walk down there, the whole building is surrounded by guards."

"Then I won't get caught. I've done this before, I'm only going in there to get a look around then I'm out." _He acts like I don't know what I'm doing._

"It is too dangerous." he stated.

"I've taken out two factories, three bases, and blew up five of their delivering trucks on my own. I can handle this."

"Your getting over confident."

"No I'm not. Just say over here if you don't want to come." I replied.

Looking on the ground to make sure the coast was clear enough to no get noticed before jumping over the gap between the buildings. _This will only take five minutes._ I made my way to one of the factories windows and looked in. It was a lot different than the other factories. Instead of conveyer-belts there were several machines being built, each was about the size of a delivery truck. _This can't be good._ I looked both ways down the catwalk before climbing in the window. Making sure not to make any noise I made my way to the edge and looked down. There had to be one soldier here that carried around some sort of plan or blueprints and if I could find them then I'd be one step closer to defeating the Overlord. I couldn't see any soldiers or serpentine carrying papers and I didn't see any lying around. _If I was a stupid stone soldier, where would I put plans to a possibly dangerous weapon?_ Then it hit me. _Of course!_


	31. Chapter 31

(Kai's POV)

First thing I need to do is find which one of these soldiers in charge. I heard footsteps coming on my left and quickly ducked behind a stack of crates as a stone soldier walked by. That was close, now to find that soldier. Before I stepped out of hiding I heard more footsteps and laughing.

"SSSo, why do you think the Overlord had thisss sudden change in plansss?" The voice obviously belonged to a serpentine, maybe a Constricti. "Thisss soundss like a wasste of time to me."

"That is what I thought, but you try telling the Overlord that." another serpentine, this one a fangpire, replied then laughed. "Nothing is going to stop his celebration. I heard he's doing this to get that red ninja and his friends out of hiding."

A celebration? Maybe finding those blueprints can wait.

"That'sss what I heard." They both stopped walking and on the other side of the boxes. "I ssstill believe it'ss a wasste of time. Who caress if it'sss the one-year anniversary of the Overlord's rein, that doessn't mean we sshould ssstop all other consstruction to build him a parade."

"Ssshhh! don't let anyone else know your thinking like that or you know what will happen."

"Yeah yeah. Ssso when exactly is the celebration being held?" the Constricti asked.

The Fangpyre snickered. "Last time I heard the brat's death but to be more exact, November 21st. Why?"

"I was jussst planing to ssay far away in casse something does happen." the snake paused. "Sssay, do you remember that window being open earlier?"

Crap!

"No I don't, but it doesn't matter just close it."

"Yeah I guessss sso."

The snake walked over to where I was.

So much for not being seen. "NINJAGO!" The boxes around me flew away and hit the two serpentine. While they were dazed I quickly left back through the window and met up with Garmadon outside.

"What did you do this time?" he asked.

I glared at him. "What makes you think I did something?"

Then there was a yell from inside the building. "That was a ninja! Go after him!"

"You were saying." Garmadon stated.

"Ok so maybe they saw me big deal." I replied, rolling my eyes. Then an alarm went off in the building. "We might want to get out of here."

He mumbled and glared at me. "I had no intention to get caught by the stone army or serpentine."

"Neither did I, let's go."

I jumped from roof to roof and to my surprise Garmadon was keeping up pretty well with me. After about five minutes we started traveling on the ground. We kept a good pace and were out of the stone soldiers sight but just to be safe we took a break in an alley.

"I think we lost them." I breathed, my heart pounding.

Garmadon was leaning against the wall across from me trying to catch his breath. "Do your plans always go haywire?"

"No." Just once in a while...

He turned to me. "What happened in there?"

"I was going to find out where they were keeping the plans but overheard two serpentine talking about a celebration in November." I replied. Garmadon gave me a look that told me he didn't believe a word I was saying. "I'm serious." I explained everything that happened and his expression softened.

"The 21st..." he looked at the ground.

I nodded. I know that I'm pissed that the Overlord has the nerve to hold a parade the day he killed Lloyd. I can't imagine what Garmadon is thinking.

He took a deep breath. "We should inform my brother of what the... what they have planned."

"I agree."

After another minute we left the alley.


	32. Chapter 32

**(** Cole's POV **)**

I was doing some training before a serpentine barged in saying that on of the factories was attacked, not surprised. Anyway, Zane and I went to check what happened. When we got there it was a mess; machinery was turned over and parts were thrown halfway across the building.

_This just gets better and better._ "Ok, what exactly happened here?" I asked a serpentine.

"There wasss a panic because sssomeone ssaw Kai." the Constrictai replied. "They ssstarted desstroying thingss when he essscaped."

I shook my head. _This is what I have to deal with..._

"Why did you not go after him?" Zane asked.

"A-a few of usss did but couldn't find him or the persson he wasss with."

_Person? Probably Jay._ "Which way did they go?"

"Down the ssstreet on the left." he stated, pointing in the direction.

I nodded then turned to Zane. "Let's move out before we loose them."

"Agreed." he stated. "All of you are to clean this building until it is spotless." The serpentine and soldiers nodded quickly and ran off in different directions.

We figured they would have taken the roofs so we took the same route. The plan was simple, catch Kai and who ever was with him then take them to the Overlord. It didn't take long before we caught up to them. They were walking on the ground in silence.

_This is going to be easy._ I turned and whispered to Zane. "On the count of three we attack using spinjitzu. Ready?" He nodded. "One... two... three! Ninjago!"

We launched ourselves of the roof and on to the street. I managed to hit Kai and seen him into the side of a building while Zane did the same with the other person. As we slowed to a stop I was able to see who it was. It took a minute but I could still recognize him, it was the person we left for dead in that ally a few weeks ago. _That's impossible! He should be dead._

**(** Kai's POV **)**

I rubbed the back of my head. _I'm going to feel that for a week._ My vision came into focus and I saw Cole and Zane a few feet away.

"What do you two want?" I asked, standing up and brushing the dirt off. They looked very unfocused.

Cole shook his head before turning to me. "You to stop messing with the Overlord's plans."

"Ya, not going to happen." _It's not like I blew up the factory this time._

"We assumed the would be your response." Zane stated.

Before I could respond a large ice-spear was headed for my face, luckily for me I dodged it just in time. I looked over at Garmadon who was now standing up. _Good, he's not hurt._

I ran over to him. "Do you think you can handle fighting off Cole while I take care of Zane?"

He glared at me. "Yes, do you have a plan this time?"

"Keep fighting until they give up or until there's an opening, which ever comes first." Out of the corner of my eye I saw another spear. I pushed Garmadon out of the way and put up a wall of fire that made the ice melt. "I'll lead him over there while you fight." He nodded. "NINJAGO!" I knocked both Zane and Cole into a wall. "Consider that pay back." I pulled out my sword and shot fire at them.

"That hothead is getting on my nerves!" Cole stated. "You fight him, I'll deal with the other guy."

_At least the plan is working._ I put my sword away and shot fire at Zane with my hands. We fought for a while and it didn't look like either of us were winning. Garmadon was doing better than I thought as well, He even managed to land a few blows. _This is taking forever, time for plan B._

"Garmadon, watch out!" I formed a fireball with both my hands and shot it at Zane, sending him flying into Cole and through a building. _Well, that worked._ "Let's go." I stated running past him.

He caught up. "If you could do that then, why didn't you do it earlier?"

"I didn't feel like it. Now go!"

It took almost half-an-hour but we made it back to the dojo without being followed. _I never thought I'd be happy to be back here._ We went to the training room and found the others talking.

"How was tour?" Nya asked.

"Ya, about that... There was a lot of commotion around a factory so we decided to check it out." I replied.

"He got half the stone soldiers there and Cole and Zane to chase after us." Garmadon stated.

"Serpentine were there too." I added.

"Kai, I told you not to get into trouble." Sensei said in an annoyed tone.

_Technically I didn't._ "So maybe I got spotted but, I found some important info about the Overlord." I told them what I saw and heard.

"This is very troubling." he stroked his beard.

"On the day Lloyd died too, harsh." Jay added.

"Who's Lloyd?" Skales Jr asked.

_That's right, we never told him_. "He was our friend, the Overlord killed him about a year ago."

"Oh."

There was an awkward silence for a minute. "So what's the deal with Jay's powers?" I asked and Jay frowned.

"I haven't found anything in the scrolls but from what we can tell his powers have been incredibly weakened." Misako answered. "It could have something to do with the dark matter, in a similar way to his memories, but we can not know for sure. For now it would appear that his powers are gone."

"So his powers are gone, like not coming back at all?" _This could be fun._

"Gee, thanks for rubbing it in." Jay rolled his eye.

"This is serious Kai." Nya crossed her arms.

"I know, I know. So, what are we going to do if motor-mouth here can't zap things?"

"The best we can do is hope that his powers come back, if they don't then he will live without his powers." Dr Julien said.

"Doesn't sound that bad."

"Easy for you to say, your powers are getting stronger everyday!" Jay stated.

_At least I'm not the only one that noticed that._ I shrugged.

"It is getting late, we should all get some sleep." Sensei Wu said.

"But what about the Overlord's plan?"

"I will think about it and tell you in the morning."

_That means we're going to do nothing._ "Whatever, I'm going to bed see ya."

Everyone said goodnight and went their separate ways.


	33. One Year Anniversary part 1

It had been almost a month since I heard about the Overlord's plan and just like I expected Sensei decided to do nothing. The only difference was this time he kept all of us on a tight training scheduled, so we were either too busy to leave or would be too tired to do anything. That doesn't mean that I didn't try to get out at one point or another but I got caught each time. Sensei decided to have Garmadon teach a lesson every few days; he really didn't think it was a good idea but ended up doing a good job. Anyway, by then I was really getting sick of staying in the dojo and I could tell that Jay and Nya felt the same way. The problem was I couldn't think of a way to sneak out without getting caught again.

I rolled over and pressed the pillow against my ears. _What is causing all of that freaking noise!_ After few more minutes before deciding to go check it out. _I swear if Jay is watching a movie I'm not going to be happy._ Walking into the training room I found Nya, Jay and, Skales Jr looking out the window, they were all in there pajamas. "Where is that racket coming from?"

"Good morning to you too Kai." Jay said.

Nya rolled her eyes. "Just look outside."

I looked and saw balloons and fireworks several blocks away. "What's going on?"

"It looks like a party to me." Skales Jr added.

_A party? Why there be a-_ "Wait a sec, what day is it?"

"November 21st." Nya's eyes widened.

I nodded and clenched my fists. "That would explain the parade."

"What are you two talking about?" Jay asked. Nya leaned over and whispered in his ear. "Oh, right. What's the plan?"

"I don't know yet." _And I doubt Sensei is going to let us leave._

"We might as well get ready for training, again." he replied.

"Sensei is having us train again?" Skales Jr asked.

I put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry you get used to it."

"Well Jay and I are making breakfast," Nya said, "Do you want anything?"

"Not right now." I need to find a way to get out of here. "I'll join you guys later."

"If you say so."

They left the room and Garmadon came in.

"Great, what do you want?" I asked and leaned against the wall.

He shook his head and looked out the window. "I assume you know what is happening out there."

"Ya, that stupid dragon is having a parade."

"I see." Garmadon narrowed his eyes. "Do you have a plan?"

"Not exactly but even if I did Sensei wouldn't let us leave." I replied.

"That is true." he thought for a minute. "What if I could help you with that?"

I looked at him in surprise. "What do you mean?"

"I will distract my brother while you, Nya, and Jay take care of that parade."

_That might work._ "Whats the catch?" I asked.

"Just try not to destroy the city." he stated.

"I guess we can do that, deal." _No promises._

"Good. Go join the others and I will talk to Wu."

I nodded and left to the kitchen. _Whatever his plan is, it better work._

Nya, Jay, and Skales Jr were sitting at the table eating cereal; I got some for myself and sat down by them.

"Hey Kai." my sister said. "So what did Garmadon want?"

"He said he might have a way for us to sneak out." I replied.

"You mean we won't have to train?" Jay asked. "Yes!"

Skales Jr looked up at me. "Can I come too?"

"I don't know, it could be dangerous..."

"Please, I have been training with you three for a while and I'm getting good." he stated.

_That's true._ "What do you guys think?"

"He could use the experience." Nya said.

"I don't see why he can't." Jay added. "The kid has been getting good."

"Then it's settled, but you need to do what we say and stick close." I told him.

"You can count on me." Skales Jr smiled.

I was going to reply but Sensei, Misako, Garmadon, and Dr Julien came in.

"Good morning everyone." Sensei Wu said.

"Good morning Sensei, what is the plan today?" Nya asked.

"More training?" Jay added.

"Actually, the four of us are going out of town for a few days." Misako stated. "We need to check on the Ultra Dragon and do a few other things."

_A few days? Finally a break from training._

"Your training will continue when we return." Sensei said. "Oh, and Kai, don't blow-up the city while we're gone."

"Why does everyone think I'm going to destroy the city?" I asked.

"I'll make sure he doesn't Sensei." Nya replied.

"Thank you. See you all in a few days."

We all said goodbye as they left the dojo.

"Now what?" Jay asked. They turned to me.

I smirked. "Ok, here's my plan."

* * *

(No one's POV, earlier that morning)

"All I'm saying is having a parade this big is going to to draw a lot of unwanted attention." Cole said. "Zane back me up."

The nindroid nodded. "He has a valid point Sir. Kai and his friends have not interfered with your plans for weeks. An event like this would-"

"SILENCE!" the Overlord yelled shaking the room. "Everything will continue as planed."

"But Kai-" the ninja of earth said.

"I am counting on him showing up." The dragon interrupted. "What better way to celebrate the anniversary of my takeover than to get rid of that ninja?"

Cole and Zane glanced at each other.

"Not to be rude or anything but if we were going to catch Kai, don't you think we would have done it by now?" Cole asked.

The Overlord lowered his head to their height and growled. "That would be your fault for not being prepared." Cole backed away and he smirked. "Now, unless you would like to become a spot on the pavement I suggest you get my army ready for the parade."

"Yes master." they said in unison and left the room.


	34. One Year Anniversary part 2

(Kai's POV)

We watched the street below as rows of stone soldiers passed followed by the rest of the parade. I clenched my fists as I looked down. _I can't stand this!_ There were a lot of stone soldiers and serpentine crowding the streets; I also saw some humans here and there but they were all under the Overlord's control.

"Do you three remember the plan?" I asked and everyone nodded.

"It still seems risky to me but I trust you." Nya replied.

"Yeah same here." Jay added.

"Good." I replied. "You both know what to do."

They nodded and ran off.

"What should I do?" Skales Jr asked.

"Just stick close." He nodded. _Maybe I shouldn't have brought him. He could get hurt or worse._ I looked down at the street and saw Zane and Cole on a float further down the street; they looked like they were talking but I couldn't hear them over the crowd.

"Whoa, that's a big parade." Skales Jr said in awe. _  
_

"Yeah..." I replied and tried not to show my anger. _The Overlord is really_ _getting on my last nerve._

I studied the float Cole and Zane were on and it looked like there was some cover under the streamers decorating the float. _  
_

_If we can get on there without getting caught, we could launch a surprise attack on them. Or find out what their saying_. I turned to Skales Jr. "Follow me." He nodded and quietly followed me down to the alley below.

"What now?" he asked.

I looked past the people to find the quickest way into the float without being seen _._ The crowd was mostly made up of people under the Overlords control; with a few serpentine spread throughout the crowd. They were pretty much zombies and wouldn't notice us go by if we were quick.

I turned to him. "On the count of three we run to that float and hide under those streamers, ok?"

"Is that safe?"

"Probably not." I said, looking down the street. "Ok here comes the float. One... two... three!" I darted through the crowd and onto the float, a second later Skales Jr rolled past the streamers too.

He breathed a sigh of relief. "I can't believe that worked."

_Same here._ "Now we wait for Jay and Nya's signal." I whispered and he nodded back.

"Did you here that?" Cole's voice came from right above us.

_Oh on!_

"The only thing I hear is the crowd." Zane replied.

"I could have sworn I heard something." he said. After a minute of quiet Cole sighed. "I'm not sure what to think about this."

"About what?"

"Everything!" he exclaimed. "Some of this just feels, I don't know, wrong."

"What do you mean?" the ninjdroid asked. "We are doing what we must. The Overlord would be very displeased to hear what you are Cole."

"Yeah I know, but a parade? Doesn't that seem a bit excessive?"

Zane thought for a moment. "Well, maybe a little."

"And think about it. The only reason the Overlord has us on this float is to show us off like some kind of trophy."

_You got that right._

"That could be true."

"Exactly and the Overlord's plans to stop Kai haven't worked yet." he pointed out.

"You better not be turning against the Overlord." Zane warned.

"What, of course not!" Cole replied in disbelief. "Keep your voice down someone could hear you."

"Good." he stated, ignoring his comment. "You remember what happened last time the Overlord was angry with you?"

"Yeah I know." he said. "Any ideas for the attack next week?"

"Not yet. Do you?"

"There's a certain Hypnobrai that needs to be taught a lesson." Cole said. "This fight might be just what we need to remove him permanently."

_Who are they talking about?_

"Interesting but I see no reason to-"

"No reason! He's been sneaking around and planing something, Skales needs to be stopped."

"Yes but-"

"If you won't help me I'll do it myself." the ninja of earth stated.

_This isn't goo_ _d._ "Skales Jr, are you ready?" He didn't answer. "Skales Jr?" I turned to where he was but didn't see him. _Where did he-_

"Who let a serpentine up here?!" Cole shouted.

_That better not be him._ I climbed to the top of the float just in time to see Cole get kicked to the float in front of us by the young serpentine. I would have been impressed if Zane wasn't coming up behind him. "Ninjago!" I knocked him through the streamers and turned to Skales Jr. "What were you thinking!"

He crossed his arms. "I wasn't going to sit by while they talked about my dad like that."

_What am I going to do with him?_ "We'll talk about this later, just stick with me this time." He nodded but didn't look at me. _We're definitely talking about this later._

"I should have known the little brat was with you." Cole said as he limped back over to us.

_Wow he must have gotten hit hard._ "What, can't take a hit from a kid?" _Probably not the smartest thing to say at the moment._

He glared at me but before he said anything there was a load explosion near the front of the parade. _Took them long enough._ People were running around screaming. Now would be a good time to leave. I grabbed Skales Jr's hand and took-off down the street.

"Get them!" Cole shouted behind me, probably talking to the stone soldiers.

_Not this again_. I continued running until we saw Jay and Nya. "Good your here, let's go!" I said quickly.

"What about the plan?" Nya asked.

I glanced down at the small Hypnobrai. "Someone didn't stick to it."

Jay looked surprised. "What happened?"

"I'll explain later but right now we need to go!"

They agreed and we went to the dojo. when we finally got there I sent Skales Jr to his room and told Jay and Nya what happened.

"Sounds like he was acting like you." Jay laughed.

"That's not true!" I retorted.

"Nya, back me up on this."

"He's right." she stated. "Kai, whether you like it or not Skales Jr looks up to you and he's going to pick up on a few of your habits."

"Like acting before thinking."

"I had a plan."

"Yeah this time."

"You would have done the same if he was talking about one of us." Nya said.

"Well I-" I guess she's right. "You got me there."

"Did he really send Cole flying onto another float?" Jay asked.

"Yeah and he was limping too." I smirked. "His training must be paying off."

"We should probably call him down for dinner soon." Nya pointed out.

"I'll go get him." Jay said, leaving us alone.

My sister turned to me. "You might want to apologize to him when they come back."

"I know." I replied. "I was too hard on him."

"He is still an kid."

I nodded and a second later Jay ran into the room.

"He's gone!" he shouted. "I think he ran away."


	35. One Year Anniversary part 3

(Few hours after the parade, Zane's POV)

"Are you still limping?" I asked as he entered the room.

"Shut up!." Cole glared at me. "My leg hit the edge of the float I flew into."

"He was just a kid."

"Yeah, one with training." he said. "Look it's getting late, I'm going to bed. See you tomorrow."

I nodded and closed my eyes to continue meditating but was interrupted by my falcon. He appeared to be flying over an area of the city that was not too far from where I was. I looked around before noticing someone running down the street below. That is odd. I zoom in to get a closer look and it turned out to be a serpentine. The same one from earlier.

I smirked. "This is going to be interesting."

* * *

After checking the dojo from top to bottom we decided to split up and check the neighborhood. I didn't have any luck and went back to the dojo to wait for Nya and Jay but they were already there.

"Did you guys find him?" I asked.

Nya shook her head. "It doesn't look like he took anything with him either."

"I told you he's gone." Jay said.

_Yeah I can see that._ "Let's split-up again." They look at each other. "What?"

"Kai, the sun went down and if we didn't find him when it was lighter it's not likely that we'll find him at night." Nya said calmly.

_It's night?_ I looked around and noticed everything was almost black. "Bring a flashlight then."

"We want to find Skales Jr too but we'll have better luck tomorrow."

"If we wait until tomorrow then we might not find him, or someone else could find him before we do!" They were about to respond but I interrupted them. "I don't care if your going to look for Skales Jr, but I am." Before they had the chance to reply I turned around and ran off. _I don't need their help._ The sky was getting darker by the second. _If I was Skales Jr, where would I go? Wait a minute, the tomb!_


	36. Zane

(Kai's POV)

I ran through the empty sewer as fast as my legs could carry me. If Skales Jr was down here I would find him. Thirty minutes later I came to the tunnel that led to the tomb. When I entered I noticed the whole room looked darker than the last time I was there. Everywhere I looked was purple-black, including the lights. The green river that had once cut through the room was flooded and gray. On the bright side it looked like Cole had left the place alone after the attack.

"Skales Jr, are you in here?" I called out, but I didn't get an answer. "Kid?"

Walking further into the room I noticed how much darker the room really became, there were shadows everywhere. The young Hypnobrai really picked a good hiding spot. I kept my ears open of any sound other than the constant dripping of water.

_Where is he?_ "Skales Jr?" There was no answer.

I sighed and turned to leave but stopped when I heard something that I hadn't before, crying. Following the sound I found myself in one of the bigger houses in the cave.

"Skales Jr?" I asked again.

"K-Kai?" he said softly through his tears.

I breathed a sigh of relief. "You had me a little worried there. Why didn't you reply earlier?"

"I...I thought you were still mad at me." He hid his face in his arms.

"What? I'm not mad." _Is that why he ran off?_

He lifted up his head a little. "B-but at the parade you said-"

"You scared me, I shouldn't have yelled and I'm sorry I did." I stated and sat next to him. "That was a pretty hotheaded thing to do."

Skales Jr hesitated before replying softly. "I just don't want my dad hurt."

"I understand but that was still risky." I said

"I know." He looked at the ground

"How about we go back to the dojo then we can think of a plan with Nya and Jay. Ok?"

"You mean it?"

"Well yeah, I wasn't going to do nothing." I laughed.

He smiled widely and gave me a tight hug. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"No problem, kid." I stated and returned the hug before standing up. "I think we should head back, my sister is probably getting worried."

"I'm sorry for worrying you guys."

"Just don't do it again." He nodded. "Ok, l-" I stopped talking when I heard something behind me, I pulled out my sword and turned around.

"Is something wrong Kai?" Skales Jr asked softly.

"Stay behind me." I stated then went back to the emptiness in front of me. "Who's there?"

Zane walked through the entrance. "I am surprised you didn't notice I followed."

_Great, just what I need._ "What do you want?"

"I am here to repay you for earlier." he said. "You left quite a mess."

_I need to stall for time until I think of a plan._ "Where's Cole? Isn't he normally with you?"

"Unfortunately, he couldn't be here. That Serpentine apparently packs a punch." he motioned towards Skales Jr.

I had to stop myself from laughing. _I need to remember to give the kid a high-five later._ "Let's make this quick ok? It's getting late."

"I couldn't agree more." Zane pulled out his sword and charged.

"Stay over here ok?" I told Skales Jr and he nodded.

With that I ran at Zane, managing to singe his outfit as I passed him. We fought back and forth. I aimed fire at him, he'd miss and fire ice at me, which I dodged.

"Kai help!" Skales Jr yelled as her tried to pull away from Zane but was trapped by the arm around his throat.

"Let him go, Zane. He has nothing to do with this." I said.

"You have a choice Kai." He stated "Continue attacking and risk hitting your little friend or, give up and come with me."

_I can't let him get hurt but I can't let Zane get away with this._

"Tick tock." Zane said and tightened his hold on Skales Jr, even making some ice appear. The little Hypnobrai looked pleadingly at me.

_That's it!_ "I said, let him go!" I wasn't able to stop before my hands shot up and a beam of light knocked Zane off his feet with the Hypnobrai. "Oh no, Skales Jr are you ok!?" I asked running over to him, he still was shivering from the frost but didn't look like he had any scratches.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He replied then looked to the side and his eyes widened in shock. "What's happening?"

I turned and saw a purple cloud disappear leaving Zane on the ground. _Did it work?_ "Stay here." I told him and walked over to where the other Ninja lay.

His clothes changed back to white and he didn't show any traces of the dark matter. I tapped him with my foot but he was still unconscious.

"I might need your help carrying him to the dojo." I said, lifting the ninjdroid so I could put his arm over my shoulder.

"He's coming with us?" Skales Jr asked nervously.

"I'm pretty sure that blast of light got rid of the evil, so we should be good."

"If you say so." He replied again and grabbed Zane's other arm. "He's heavy!"

I laughed a little. "Well he is made of metal. Come on, let's get out of here."

Getting him out of the tunnels was pretty hard but after that dragging him to the dojo was easy enough. Skales Jr didn't talk the whole trip and Zane was still knocked-out. Nya and Jay were really surprised to see Zane, they suggested putting him in the living room so we could keep an eye on him. Once that was done we went to the training room to talk things over. I told them what happened to lead up to Zane being with us now and that we needed to find a way to help the serpentine under the Overlord's control, especially Skales.

"I'm sure we can think of something." Nya said. "In the meantime we should all get some rest."

"But what about Zane?" Skales Jr asked.

"Nya and I can watch him." Jay stated. "With everything going on you guys need a break."

I was going to object but was interrupted by a yawn. "Fine you two win. Come on Skales Jr, I'll tuck you in." He nodded and followed me to his room.

"Do you really think you can save them?" he asked, laying down in bed and I put the covers over him.

"Well yeah. I'm pretty sure we can."

"Are you going to do the same thing you did to Zane, with the blast of light?"

I rubbed the back of my neck. "I'm not even sure how I do that. It's only the second time it happened."

"Ok." he nodded. "I trust you, goodnight Kai."

"Good night Skales Jr." I walked out of the room. _What am I going to to?_


	37. Chapter 37

**(Kai's POV)**

The days after the parade were interesting. Zane had lost his memories of when he was evil and his powers, so I had to catch him up on everything that happened after the battle with the Overlord. He seemed to take the news well. The next day Sensei returned, he wasn't too happy that we (I) caused trouble but was glad that we were safe and that Zane was with us. Dr Julien was probably the most excited to see Zane again, they talked with each other for hours. Sensei didn't give us a break for long and put us back to work on training. Zane was good with a sword before but still needed the practice. We needed to save the serpentine and I had a plan. But sometimes things don't workout how you want them to.

**Later that week...**

"Jay, do you know how to drive?" I asked, punching a serpentine off the roof of the moving truck. Jay was at the wheel while Zane and I fought serpentine on the roof while the truck went at full speed down the mountain road.

"You try driving with low depth perception!" He called back. "We're lucky to still be on the road!"

"I suggest the two of you do not argue at the moment, we do have more serpentine to take care of." Zane interrupted while holding a fangpyre away from him with one hand and a constricti with the other.

"Focus on the road!"

"I am!"

"Brace yourselves!" Zane shouted just before we hit a bump, causing the back of the truck to turn sideways but that didn't slow it down.

"We need to go now!" I stated and called through the headset. "Jay, get out of there!"

"I'm trying but the seat belt is stuck!" He yelled back in a panicked tone.

"Zane, call Nya and make sure she knows where we are. I'm going to help Jay."

I barely noticed him nod before running to the front of the truck, which was now pointing northeast. I jumped through the passenger window and found Jay. He looked like he was trying to regain control of the truck with one hand and trying to undo the seat belt with the other, both without luck. I grabbed the belt and burned it in my hand. Right after it broke I pulled Jay out the door with me.

"NINJAGO!" I yelled, Jay's call went out a second later and we landed on our feet a few yards away just in time to watch the truck ride over the edge of the cliff.

"Well that was close." Jay said as he looked at me.

"Yeah."

Zane waked up to us. "Nya said we must return to the dojo. Sensei is looking for us."

_Oh crap._

"We are so hooped."

"Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll let us off with another warning." I replied.

**Later that day...**

"You can't do this!" I yelled.

"You went out without my permission." Sensei Wu argued. "You three could have gotten hurt."

"But we didn't!"

"I refuse to discuss this any further. You are all to stay indoors for five days, no acceptations." he stated calmly.

"What are we supposed to do stuck in here?!" Jay asked.

"Go train."

We both groaned in annoyance at that and went to the kitchen where Zane was cooking dinner while Nya and Skales Jr watched. From what I could see, and smell, Zane was making spaghetti. Nya noticed us walk in.

"So, how did it go?" she asked.

"We-" I started.

"We're grounded in the dojo for five days! Five days, Nya!" Jay screamed.

"What he said."

"It's not like you told him you guys were leaving somewhere." Nya said. "Sensei has the right to worry."

I crossed my arms. "Nobody was injured except for a few serpentine. I got Jay out of that truck in time and next time we know not to let him drive."

"I wasn't that bad!" Jay complained.

"The truck fell off the side of the mountain!"

"Yeah. _After_ we escaped!"

"You weren't able to say on the road before that!"

Zane cleared his throat to get our attention. "If you both are done arguing; dinner is ready."

Everyone ate in silence.

_This is going to be a long week._

* * *


	38. Chapter 38

(Kai's POV)

I punched the dummy sending it crashing into the wall. It was the third day of our week long sentence and Garmadon saw it fit to annoy me further by watching me train silently from the sidelines. He made a fast recovery but had an obvious limp when he walked, Zane's dad decided to keep an eye on him. I put the dummy back in place and continued to take out my anger on it. Garmadon shook his head.

What is it now? "Alright I'm done with you silently judging me. What do you want?" Everyone was convinced that he was good now, I still wasn't completely convinced.

"Your anger is making your attacks unfocused. You need to-"

"Right I'm totally going to except advice from someone with a history of evil." I interrupted.

He narrowed his eyes at me. "I take it you still do not trust me." he said, sounding more like a statement than a question.

"Kinda hard to trust someone who spent years trying to take over Ninjago." I stated.

Garmadon sighed shaking his head and left the room. Skales Jr came in seconds later.

"Don't you think your being a little mean?" he asked quietly.

"You heard the whole conversation?" He nodded. "Garmadon was evil, people don't just change. Once evil, always evil."

"So, you still think us Serpentine are bad guys?"

"What? Of-course not! That's not what I meant. The serpentine aren't bad, you have proven that."

"But not that long ago weren't we enemies?" Skales Jr asked. "All humans were scared of us right?"

"That was years ago things are different now." As I said this I realized the situation and that I was contradicting myself.

"Your friends were bad guys for a while before you saved them. They are nice again." he pointed out.

"W-Well I..."

"Sensei Wu told me the story of how Mr Garmadon became evil and that he used to be nice too before the Devourer bit him." he paused. "Mr Garmadon was a bad guy too, now he wants to help."

I was speechless. Skales Jr made several good points that hadn't crossed my mind.

"Just because humans and serpentine were enemies doesn't mean we can never get along." Skales Jr said. "Just because he used to be bad doesn't mean he can't be good."

I really didn't want to admit it but he was right about Garmadon. There was no reason he couldn't be on our side now. "I guess I should apologize now, huh?" He smiled and nodded in agreement. "Let's go find Garmadon." We didn't have to go far, he was in the living room talking to Sensei. Great now I'm in for it.

"Don't worry brother I can keep an eye on him. Besides, we need more food anyway." Garmadon said.

"I suppose you are right." Sensei Wu replied then noticed us in the doorway. "There you are Kai. We were just about to come get you."

"Uh, yeah. What's going on?"

He turned to Garmadon. "It would appear that my brother wishes to get groceries but he isn't familiar with the city yet."

"Yes, Wu has agreed with me that it would be in everyone's best interest to allow you to accompany me." Garmadon stated. "That is unless you would rather train."

How does he keep getting Sensei to let us out of the dojo? "I wouldn't mind going to get food."

"Then we'll be off." he stood up. "See you soon brother."

"Be safe."

"See ya later Kai." Skales Jr added as we left.

I waved goodbye and walked behind Garmadon. We were both quiet for about five minutes before he said something.

"I assume you are wondering why I talked my brother into letting you out of the dojo and lifting the punishment."

"Yeah, I'm also wondering how."

"Well, the dojo is quite small and I understand wanting to be free." he replied. "I was trapped in the underworld for many years. Then again by..." His voice faded

The Overlord. That explains some of this. "While we are out here we might as well finish your tour of the city."

"Lead the way but no charging into buildings full of stone soldiers this time." he said. "I told Wu we would keep out of trouble."

"I make no promises."


	39. Chapter 39

**(** Zane's dream, No POV **)**

Zane looked around but all he could see were tall dark red flames.

"W-Where am I?"

He walked around to see if he could find either the source of the flames or see if anyone was there. The flames seemed to come from everywhere, he examined his surroundings closer, Zane could faintly see remains of buildings within the flames. He continued walking down what might have been a street at one point, various types of wreckage covered the ground.

"Something is not right."

As he took his next step a loud crash rang through the air and everything turned dark. When he could see again, there were tall purple flames in every direction.

He stumbled back in surprise. "This is not good."

Distorted laughter echoed over the sound of the flames, seeming to come from everywhere.

"That voice, it sounds familiar," Zane said to himself, then called out. "Who is there?"

He got no reply as the strange laughter continued. The ninjdroid turned around the last thing he saw was a tall shadowed figure's fist fly into his face, then everything went black.

Zane opened his eyes and sat up straight. He put a hand to the left side of his face, where the figure had hit him. Logically he knew what happened was a dream and there was no evidence to what took place but it was still a shock. He sighed and allowed himself to relax. Zane jumped at the sound of knocking and got up to open the door. Standing outside were Jay and Skales Jr.

"Hey, Zane," Jay said, the serpentine gave a small wave from behind him.

"Good morning Jay and Skales Jr. How can a help you?" he replied.

"The kid here wants to ask you something," he stated before he gave Skales Jr a small push towards Zane. "Go on, he won't bite."

"Could you teach me to cook?" he asked.

"I am not doing anything at the moment," Zane said. "I don't see why not."

"Really? Thankss!" Skales Jr replied with a smile.

* * *

(Kai's POV)

"And the entrance to the serpentine's old hideout is over there," I said, pointing towards the large hole in the sewer wall.

"Speaking of serpentine. Shouldn't Skales Jr be living with them." Garmadon stated. "There are more somewhere."

_This again?_ "We haven't found any other serpentine, not under the Overlord's control and I'm not going to leave him with a bunch of humans," I replied. "He's safer with us."

"Oh yes, there is no way he could get seriously injured or anything." he rolled his eyes.

"I'll keep him safe." I retorted. "Anyone wants to get to him will have to go through me."

Garmadon didn't reply as we walked through the dimly lit sewer to the next exit ladder. The walk back to the dojo was quiet. When we got there, an amazing smell had filled the dojo.

_Zane's cooking again._

Garmadon went to talk to Sensei and I went to the kitchen. Not only did I find Zane but Skales Jr too. The small serpentine was standing on a stool next to Zane, both in front of a medium-sized pot.

"Add a little salt and tell me what you think," Zane said.

Skales Jr nodded putting in a dash of salt and mixing it in before taking a taste. "I think it'ss done."

Zane took a taste. "You are correct. Good job Skales Jr." The Hypnobrai beamed proudly.

"What are you two making?" I asked.

"Kai! You're back!" Skales Jr ran over nearly knocking me over with a hug. "Zane and I made a roasst for dinner! It hass carrotss, potatoess, beef and a bunch of other good sstuff, too."

"Sounds good." I couldn't help but notice his speech was becoming more like other serpentine.

"Dinner will be in five minutes. We need to set the table." Zane stated. "Could you gather everyone, Kai?"

"Sure."

Five minutes later we all ate the dinner they worked on. Skales Jr diffidently learned a lot from Zane, the roast tasted amazing. After dinner, Zane, Skales Jr, Nya, Jay and I decided to play a card game before bed.

"It appears as though I have won," Zane said.

"How can you win "Go Fish" four times in a row?!" Jay asked throwing his arms in the air.

"Luck."

"The real question is why someone would play the game four times in a row," I said with a laugh. "We should all get some rest, we're training again tomorrow."

"Already? It'sss barely dark outside." Skales Jr complained.

"Yeah I'm with the kid. Why don't we play one more round?" Jay offered.

"Sensei would not be pleased with us if we stay up too late," Zane stated. "It is good to practice proper sleep cycles and a minimum to get 8 hours of sleep to ensure we stay at peak health."

"Zane's right we'll play another round tomorrow." Nya stood up and said goodnight.

The rest of us followed shortly after. I had just finished tucking in Skales Jr and turned to go to my room when Zane walked up to me.

"Kai I need to speak to you about something," he said. "It can not wait until tomorrow."

_That's odd_. "Uh, sure. What do you need to talk about?"

He described a dream he had last night where the city was in ruins and there was purple fire everywhere. "There was strange laughter, I still don't recognize who it was. I believe there is something very dangerous coming that we might be unable to defeat."

_Wow, this is a lot to take in._ "Don't worry I'm sure we can handle anything that comes our way. After all, we are a team, no one is going to stop us. Not even the Overlord."

"While your theory does not seem entirely accurate I trust you and hope you are correct," Zane stated.

"Of course, I am. Try to get some sleep, you'll need it for tomorrow."

"Yes, training. I had almost forgotten." he shook his head as if to clear it. "Goodnight my friend."

"'Night Zane," I replied and we went our separate ways. I looked at the ceiling for a few moments thinking about what he had said. _He's probably getting some sort of flashback from when he was under the Overlord's control. If not there is nothing I can't take care of with this gold power._ There was no way I was letting anything hurt my friends. With that thought going through my head I fell asleep waiting for the next day to begin.


	40. Cole

(About 2 months later, Cole's POV)

"The Overlord wishes to speak with you." a stone soldier said as they entered my room.

"I'll leave after this game." I replied and continued to stare at the T.V. screen.

"He said immediately. No exceptions."

"Of-course he does." I paused the game. _What does the Overlord want?_

I followed the stone soldier down the hall and through a pair of large doors. The room was as dark as it was last time I came. At the end of the room the Overlord was sitting on his throne.

"Ah, there you are Cole."

I bowed. "You wanted to speak with me?"

"Yes I did. Are you aware of how far Kai has set back my plans?" the dragon asked.

"I have done my best to organize patrols through out the city and around the factories. Kai has somehow found ways around it."

"Exactly." he replied smiling. "It has come to my attention I need to be more direct in my attempts to catch him."

"What do you have in mind, sir?"

"You used to live with them correct?"

"Yes." I said.

"Then you can lead some of my soldiers to where they are and bring Kai and his group to me." the Overlord replied.

"W-What?" _No, this doesn't seem right_. "I apologize, Master, but I must decline. I'm sure we can find another-"

The dragon rose in height, towering over me. "You did not just say "no" to me! If you weren't of use to me I would have thrown you out just like I did with Garmadon."

_That was a big mistake._ I backed away towards the door. "I-I'm just saying we m-might want to try something different."

A large clawed hand swiped out at me.

* * *

(Kai's POV)

I turned to the others. "Everyone remember the plan?" I asked.

"Yes, Kai." Nya replied, rolling her eyes.

"We've only gone over it a hundred times." Jay added.

"112 times actually." Zane corrected.

"It'll be fine Kai." Skales Jr stated

"Ok, I just wanted to make sure."

"We're behind you all the way Kai." the ninja of lightning stated.

_That's good to know._

We waited for about five minutes before getting word from them to continue. After that, the dark matter factory a few feet away lit up in flames. It was satisfying seeing the stone soldiers run away screaming after over a year of torture from them. Plus, it put the Overlords plans behind by months. I stood in an alley with Skales Jr, waiting for the others to get here. Their job had been to get all the humans and serpentine out of the factory before we blew it up.

"Good job guys." Nya said as she walked over with Jay and Zane.

"It wasssn't that hard." Skales Jr replied.

"Did you see the way those stone creeps ran." Jay laughed.

"We should go tell Sensei this was a success." I added.

They agreed and we headed back to the dojo. We were blocks away when the ground shook slightly and I knew what it meant. Before I could warn the others we were knocked in different directions by columns of dirt. I quickly got to my feet again and looked around, just like I had guessed Cole was standing not that far away. He looked different from last time. Now he had a large bandage over most of his left cheek.

"What happened to you?" I asked.

"That's none of your business!" he replied, sending out another wave of earth.

I dodged the attack easily. It was probably the Overlord. I decided not to attack in case I injured him more and kept dodging.

"I didn't want to do this, Kai, but you're making this difficult." Cole stated as he reached for something on his back. I had just enough time to register the dark matter blaster before he shot it.

I jumped back, barely avoiding it. "Cole stop! You don't have to do this!"

"I don't have a choice!" Cole yelled, shooting more dark matter.

I just managed to dodge another attack and returned it with a blast of light to his face. Cole flew backwards landing on his arm before rolling a few feet, the blaster slid a couple feet from him. I collapsed to the ground not having much energy left. The others rushed over.

"Kai! Are you ok?" Jay asked.

"Yeah, just tired." I replied, looking over at Cole. A large cloud of smoke rose from where he was. "Do you think that worked?"

Nya went over and poked Cole with her foot. "He's out cold."

"We should get him back to the dojo so Zane's dad can look him over." I agreed. "Are you guys ok?"

"Just a little skinned." the ninja of lightning replied.

"Same." Nya added.

"Ssnake sskin is tough, ssso I'm fine." Skales Jr smiled.

"I ran a scan and I am functioning at maximum capacity." Zane stated.

"Good." I looked at Cole again. "Let's get him patched up."

I would have helped Zane and Jay carry Cole but I was still out of power from using the golden power. Sensei was surprised to see us with Cole. Dr. Julien looked under the bandage and apparently there was a long, deep cut. I can guess where it came from. If he remembered being under the Overlord's control I'd ask him how he got it but we'll need to wait until he wakes up to find out.


	41. Chapter 41

I moved my knight and knocked over Zane's queen. We had been playing Chess for almost two hours and so far I had lost but this time it looked like I would win. Nya, Jay and Skales Jr sat nearby, watching us. At least, Nya and Skales Jr were. Jay was looking at the clock on the wall behind us.

"When do you guys think Cole will wake up?" Jay asked?

I shrugged. "He'll be up soon."

"Keep in mind, Jay, he was under the Overlord's control the longest. He needs the rest." Zane said as he moved his rook forward. "Check mate."

"Again!" How does he do that!

"That means the score is Zane 10, Kai 0." Nya stated, looking at the notebook with the scores.

"Way to rub it in." I glared at her.

"Do you want to try again?" Zane asked.

I shook my head, standing up. "Maybe later."

"I want to play!" Skales Jr said and we swapped seats.

Zane reset the pieces and explained the game. A few minutes later we were all surprised.

"That'ss "check mate", right?" he asked.

"Yes, it is." Zane stated in shock.

"How did you do that?" Jay asked.

The small serpentine shrugged. "I ussed to play it with my mom."

"I'm still trying to understand how he managed to beat you Zane." Nya said.

"I do not know." the ninjdroid replied.

"Well, serpentine are good strategistss." I stated.

Sensei walked in. "I see you are training your minds."

"I guess you could say that." I said. "What's up?"

"Cole is awake and I wanted to talk to both of you."

I followed Sensei out of the room leaving the four of them to another round of chess. When we got to Dr Julien's work room he Was talking with Cole, Garmadon and Misako.

"You should rest for a few days before you start training again." Dr Julien stated.

"I think I can handle some training but if you insist, I'll take a break." Cole replied and noticed us entering the room. "Hey Kai, it's nice to see you."

"Now that Kai is here I can explain something to the both of you." Sensei said.

_Great what did I do now?_

"As you know, Cole, Kai has taken up the roll of leader while you were gone." The ninja of earth nodded. "I have talked to Julien, Misako and my brother and we agree that it would be for the best if Kai remained in charge for a while."

"What?" we both asked in unison.

_I thought Cole would take over again when he came back. Guess I was wrong._

"Cole will need time to adjust to not having his powers and you have proven yourself to be a fairly good leader." Garmadon added.

I turned to Cole and he seemed to be just as shocked as me, if not more.

"This will be something to get used to but it will be for the best for now." Misako said.

_Wow, this will be weird..._ "I can show Cole the city to help him get used to things."

"That is a good idea. He needs to know as much of the city as possible if he is to be leader again." Sensei agreed.

"You ready to go?" I asked him.

Cole nodded and stood without a word.

"Ok, we'll be back in a couple hours." I stated.

We went through the training room on the way out and said goodbye to the others before leaving. I asked if they wanted to come but they were setting up for another round between Skales Jr and Zane. I showed Cole some of the factories making sure to stay far enough away so we didn't get in an unwanted fight. Cole was quiet during most of this only asking a few questions. The last place I decided to show him was the serpentine's old home.

The place still looked amazing even after the attack. Some of the stalagmites were broken and most of the place was a dark gloomy purple. The once green light source was light purple.

"This was where Skales Jr used to live." I said. "Apparently the Serpentine got stuck in here and they made this their home."

"This place looks great. What happened to make them leave?" Cole asked.

_Maybe I shouldn't have brought him here.._. "Oh, um... When you were evil you kinda lead an attack an captured them."

"Oh..." he said and sat on a broken stalagmite. There was an awkward pause before he talked again. "Why doesn't Sensei think I can lead you guys anymore?"

"I don't know. I thought you would take over when you came back." I replied honestly and sat next to him. "They did say you need to adjust to not having powers anymore."

He sighed, then turned to me. "You still have your powers?"

"Yeah, it's stronger too."

"Them I'm glad we're on the same team." Cole laughed.

I laughed too. "No need to worry about that. About your powers, Dr Julien says it might have something to do with the dark matter."

"I guess that's why you have your powers." he said. "How long do you think it will take Sensei to let me lead?"

"I don't know. He is unpredictable." I replied and checked my watch. "We should head back, its been three hours."

Cole agreed and we went back to the dojo. The others were still playing chess and the score was Zane 5, Skales Jr 6. We were all surprised by how good Skales Jr was at chess. Maybe he should try checkers soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait. I wanted to update in December but that didn't work out like I thought it would. I have ideas for future chapters but I need to write up the next few first before we get to the stuff I already have written. This story turned out longer than I thought it would be but I'm hoping It will still be good. Anyway I hope you all have a great 2017. Thank you all for the support and have a great day/night. :)


	42. Some Things Are Not What They Seem

**(** 3 days later **)**

Everyone hoped that things would go back to normal. Well, as normal as things could get. We all knew it would take time to adjust to everything. Cole seemed to have taken losing his powers well when we told him. The next morning we were all woke up by the sound of Cole training, Sensei Wu told him to go back to sleep. Yesterday, he got up early again and Dr Julien told him to lay down. Today was no different.

I woke up to the crash of training equipment. My clock read 4:35 am.

_Why the heck are they up? Sensei said training wasn't until noon._

The noise turned to a few people arguing so I rolled out of bed to check it out.

"Not even Sensei is up at this time, Cole." Jay said before yawning. "Not cool."

"Zane's dad told you to relax for a few days!" Nya yelled. "Why can't you accept that? What if your stitches break?"

"I'm fine." Cole stated. "I can handle some training and I'm going to need to train more without my powers."

_Oh great, it's going to be one of those days._

I walked into the room and Zane was there too. Training equipment was laying everywhere.

"Did a tornado come through here?" I asked.

They turned to me.

"Kai, talk some sense into Cole." Nya said.

_Never thought I'd hear that._ "Maybe taking a break won't be that bad- hey!" I dodged his fist and the others pulled him back.

"Cole, you need to chill!" Jay stated.

"I agree."

We turned around and saw Sensei Wu standing in the doorway. The others let Cole go.

He sighed and looked at Cole, "Out of everyone in this dojo, I would not think you would be one to go against me." Cole opened his mouth to reply but Sensei raised a hand and stopped him. "Since you feel the need to do so, Kai will chose today's training and you will follow his directions."

_You can't be serious!_ I felt Cole glare in my direction. "Are you sure about this Sensei?"

"It will be good for the five of you." he stated. "Also, my brother, Misako, Dr Julien and myself will be gone for the day and someone needs to be in charge."

_Maybe training could be patrolling the city.._. "I won't let you down."

"I hope so." Sensei gave one last look at Cole before leaving to get ready.

They all looked at me. _As if i wasn't under enough pressure before._ "We should go back to sleep and wake up at a reasonable time."

"I got no complaints about that." Jay said and he walked out of the room.

(4 hours later)

Sensei left while we were all asleep. I had everyone gather in the training room a few hours later to tell them my plan for the day. Out of those of us that needed sleep, Skales Jr was the most awake. Then again he wasn't woke up early so it made sense.

"I thought about this and I've decided we are going to check around the city." I stated. "We'll split into two groups to cover more ground. Nya will lead the first group with Cole and Jay. I'll lead the other with Zane and Skales Jr. There are still a few parts of the city we haven't gone to very often and I want to see if there are still any humans or even serpentine that have managed to evade the Overlord for this long. If we do find anyone we can help them get to a safe place like Jamanakai Village. Any questions?"

"It is unlikely there are many citizens who are still free of the Overlord in the city." Zane noted.

_That's true._ "I've seen a few people come back so it is possible."

"It's almost like you just want a reason to fight stone soldiers." Cole smirked.

_Is he still doing this?_ I stopped myself from rolling my eyes, Nya ended up doing it for me. "It's safer for everyone if we get who we can out of here." He turned away. "Let's all eat breakfast then go."

Besides Jay joking around we all ate in silence. Cole continued to shoot me glares from the other side of the table but said nothing. When we were all finally ready we split up.

Maybe Cole just needed a break?

* * *

(Cole's POV)

Jay and I followed Nya through the empty streets, sticking mostly to the shadows and checking in a few buildings for anyone. I'll admit I wasn't completely paying attention to what was going on around me.

_I can't believe Sensei would say that! I'm not against him, I just know Kai isn't a good leader. He's tried before and it never ended well._ I frowned. _He has had over a year to learn, and I guess the fact everyone is ok means something-_

"Ow! Cole watch where your going!" Jay whispered and rolled his eye. "I swear, you must be the blind one, not me."

"How about you both stop arguing and actually watch where you're walking?" Nya snapped and we both went silent. "There is a factory up ahead and I don't feel like getting caught because Cole can't control his temper."

"I don't have a temper!"

"Shh!" They both almost shouted.

_I'm not the one with a temper._ I decided to follow a little further back. It wasn't long before we got to the factory. "Why are we here again?"

"Kai doesn't like coming to this part of the city. Jay and I would patrol around here alone but since Zane has been back he has come too." Nya replied quietly, looking over a parked car to the entrance of the building, there were two guards out front but no one was going in or out. "I don't see too many stone soldiers or serpentine so we should be good."

"What about those guards?" Jay asked.

"I'm sure Cole could blow off some steam." she smirked. "They won't be a problem."

I rolled my eyes and looked over at the factory. "This could be a trap. Just because there is no one outside doesn't mean the inside is empty."

"Pssh. This is one of the factories they don't use very much." Jay laughed. "They mostly use the ones we destroy often, how ironic."

"I'm not too sure about this. It still looks like a trap." I said.

"Just follow our lead and you shouldn't have a problem." Nya said. "Besides we aren't using that door."

I didn't think it was worth arguing and just followed them to the side of the building and through a part of the wall that was folded out. The inside was huge and like I assumed, there were still some of the Overlord's minions walking around. From what I could tell there were at least fifteen of them, mostly stone soldiers. We ducked behind a crate to go over the plan when footsteps came our way.

"When do you think the Overlord iss going to ask for uss to bring thiss prisoner to him?" a voice said near us and we went silent.

_Who are they talking about?_

A pair footsteps went to a halt by us."I don't know. Why doess he even keep him alive?"

"This kid sshould have been dead long ago." the first person stated. "His friends all assume he is."

There was a laugh. "Ssome friends, the Overlord sshould just sshove dark matter in his face. Then maybe he'd be useful."

"Did you hear that red ninja managed to "free" the lasst one, what wass his name?"

"Carl?"

"No- Cole, that wass it!"

"I never liked that ninja, if you ask me we're better off without any of them under the Overlord's rein." the second voice stated.

I shot a glare in the direction of the voices but stayed still.

"Ugh, we might as well go feed the brat."

There was a note of agreement and the foot steps started up again.

"We should follow them." I said, looking at both Nya and Jay. "They have someone held hostage here."

"I agree but we need to stay out of sight." Nya peeked over the crate. "Their going this way, follow me."

We followed the two serpentine to a back room on the far end of the factory. It looked like a small storage room with boxes of random machine parts stacked everywhere. The three of us slid behind a row that was away from the wall and looked over the boxes. The center of the room had a old desk with a chair and a mattress on the ground.

"Here's your lunch, eat it before we take it."

"You serpentine are just nice and kind as usual." came a sarcastic reply.

We all recognized that voice.

"You sshould feel lucky you weren't killed, Lloyd. The Overlord ssaved you from that fate."

"Oh I must have forgotten that part. Care to remind me? Was it before he tried to bite my head off or maybe-" There was a slap.

"Maybe you need to grow up." Something metal was tossed on the ground. "Eat your lunch, twerp. You are lucky we bother coming to feed you."

"The Overlord would have your head if I died and you know it." I could hear the smirk in his voice.

There were two growls followed by footsteps. "Just eat, we'll be back for the box later."

"And here I thought we were going to chat, Rattla."

There was no reply but the sound of the door shutting.

"Tch, finally."

"There is no way that is really him." Jay whispered.

"It sounds like him to me." I replied. "But I wouldn't expect any of you to remember what Lloyd sounds like."

"Cole, I have just about had it with your attitude. I swear I'll-"

"Who's there?" Lloyd called out. "Snike, if this is a joke you won't like what happens next."


	43. Chapter 43

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait. I guess I forgot to post the chapter on here too.

(Cole's POV)

We all looked at each other before I stepped out from our hiding spot. I looked at Lloyd and he stared in shock.

"No way." he said softly.

He looked almost the same the only real differences being his hair was a little longer and messier, and his ninja outfit was dirty and torn beyond repair. He was sitting down on what looked like a mattress with a metal lunch box on his lap. One of his legs looked slightly bent but he didn't look too hurt.

Lloyd shook away the surprise. "This really is a freaking prank, only the smoke shifters are involved now." he groaned. "Can't you wait until I'm done eating at least?"

"Wow, that is a messed up prank." Jay said, both him and Nya stepped into the open. "That's not even funny.

"You chose to change into all three of them? What's next, Kai and Zane?" Lloyd shouted.

"How long have you been trapped here Lloyd?" Nya asked slight disbelief in her voice.

"They moved me from another building a month or two ago, why does that matter, you obviously know that."

Jay elbowed Nya. "We don't know if he's a smoke creature."

I gave them a confused look.

"I'll tell you later." Nya stated. "How do we know you're the real Lloyd and not a shape shifter?"

"I could ask you the same."

"Sensei, Kai and the others said you were dead." she said.

Lloyd's expression took a turn and he frowned, looking away sadly. "I kinda assumed they thought I was dead." he sighed. "If it's really you guys, how are you not being controlled by dark matter? Last I remembered you were all evil and Kai was the last one."

"Apparently Kai learned how to use golden power and freed each of us." Cole explained. "Kai is patrolling the city with Zane and Skales' son."

"Skales as in the leader of the serpentine, Skales?"

Jay laughed, "That was my reaction too."

"Not even Smoke Sifters could come up with something so ridiculous."

"Why should we believe you aren't a fake?" Nya asked.

"How about we quiz him?" Jay suggested.

"Why?" I asked. "Its obvious that Kai was wrong" Nya glared at me.

"I don't see why not." Lloyd said "There's no better way to know, right?"

"What is your favorite comic?" Jay asked.

"Its been a while but my favorite is Starfarer. I haven't read comics since before i started training." Lloyd answered.

"Ok, my turn." Nya stated. "What happened for Lloyd to take his training seriously?"

"I was turned into a teenager by Tomorrow's Tea when we faced the Grundle." he replied. "Without it I'd be... How many years has it been?"

"About 2, give or take a couple months." I said.

"Ok, I'd be 12 or turning 12 soon." Lloyd turned to me. "Do you want to ask me something too?"

I shook my head. "If that doesn't convince them, I don't know what will."

"I'm convinced, don't worry." Nya replied. "Now we just need to get Lloyd out of here."

"The serpentine never notice anything, it's just the stone soldiers we need to worry about." Lloyd explained. "They also don't get tired, so running out of here wont be an option."

"Well its a good thing we're ninja, right?" Jay laughed.

"We can sneak out the way we got in." I stated. "Lloyd, just stick with us."

"You aren't going to get rid of me that easily." he said. "Anything to get out of this miserable place."

"The sooner we get out of here the closer we are to going home." Jay added.

"Can you walk?" Nya asked, looking at Lloyd's leg.

"I'm diffidently not staying here." Lloyd replied and stood up. "There. See, I can walk. Besides, my leg healed wrong when I was brought here so there is nothing we can do about it."

_How long was he trapped here?_  "We should move, before they come to check on you." I said. "If you feel like you can't walk then we'll take a break or someone can help."

He nodded and Nya lead the way out. I stayed at the back to make sure Lloyd kept up with everyone and luckily there were no problems getting out of the factory. We made it a few blocks away without any stone soldiers or serpentine seeing us.

"Hey... I think the comic book store is near here!" Lloyd said with a smile.

"That would be a good place to rest." Nya replied. "We'll stop there while I call Kai and tell him where we are."

"I wonder if there are any comics left." Jay added.

"You don't need comics, Jay." I stated, rolling my eyes.

"I haven't seen a single comic book in over a year, Cole. A year!"

"There's no harm in looking around while we're there right?" Lloyd asked.

"I guess there isn't... but don't leave the store." _As long as they don't go too far it should be ok, right?_


	44. (Sorry for the wait)

(Kai's POV)

Like Zane had said, the chances we'd find anyone who wasn't under the Overlord's control was not likely. There were stone soldiers and serpentine roaming every street we went down. We managed to escape getting caught twice but for the most part remained hidden. After an hour or two of walking we decided to take a break in a building.

"Kai, is Cole always this angry?" Skales Jr asked.

"He wasn't always. Besides Zane he was usually the calmest." I replied.

"He is acting a lot like how you once acted, Kai." Zane added. "Though, he is directing most of the negativity at you rather than everyone."

"I didn't choose to be the leader, Sensei Wu did." I stated. "Cole will be leader again in no time. He just needs to adjust to the city and the way things are now."

"Even though it was not your choice, you have proven to be a good leader. Cole will see this soon."

"Yeah! you're a great leader Kai!"

I smiled, "Thanks you two."

They continued walking for a little longer before my walkie-talkie made a sound.

"Kai, are you there?" Nya said through the device.

I picked it up. "Yeah, I'm here. did something happen?"

"Well... that's one way to put it." she paused. "We came across someone and we think you should see him."

 _Someone? Who?_  "Sure, where are you guys at?"

"The Doomsday Comics store, if you remember where that is."

"I believe I could lead us there." Zane froze a little then blinked. "It will take us forty-three minutes to get there if we move at our current traveling speed."

"Alright then, We'll be there in about an hour Nya." I replied.

"See you three later then. Over and out."

"Zane, you lead the way, I barely remember where the museum is." I laughed.

The other ninja nodded and started walking.

"Do you know who it is Kai?" Skales Jr asked.

I paused for a second. "The only person i can think of off the top of my head is Dareth."

"Dareth? Whos that?"

"I guess you could call him a friend." I shrugged. "He actually owns the Dojo but he left with the people who escaped the first few weeks after the Overlord won."

"As I recall, you were never fond of Dareth, Kai."

"Can you really blame me?" I muttered. "The guy has his own personality, I'll give him that much."

"It's nice of him to let us stay in the Dojo."

"No one had much of a choice at the time." We kept walking. "We had to get who we could out of the city and away from danger. We had been living there for months so it was like another home."

"That's kind of interesting."

"It's the way things were."

Zane quickly pushed us into an alley, pulling them behind a garbage can.

I glared at Zane. "What the heck Z-"

The nindroid covered My mouth and put one finger up to his own. "Shh!"

I was about to pull the hand off and snap at him but I stopped mid thought.

"Hey, I think it came from over here." The deep raspy voice of a Constrictai echoed slightly through the alley.

"Urg, Thisss iss prepossterousss!" another serpentine shouted, all three of us knew the voice. "Why doessn't the Overlord make thosse ssstone statuess look for them?"

Skales Jr's head lift up slightly as he spoke too soft for the other serpentine to hear. "Dad?" Zane covered the small serpentines mouth with his other hand.

"Well then, why don't you be the oh so brave serpentine leader and ask him that question yourself?" the Constrictai laughed.

"You know very well how that would turn out." Skales hissed angrily. "I rather enjoy having my ssscales intact!"

There was another laugh. "Ha! Don't we all." I heard steps walking toward us and prepared to attack when needed but they stopped and turned around quickly. "This is a waste of time. Let's see if we can find anything at a doughnut shop."

"Finally sssomething we can both agree on." Skales laughed.

We stayed quiet for a couple minutes after the footsteps faded before we relaxed.

"Well that was close." I said.

"Very close." Zane added.

"That was Dad..." Skales Jr said softly. "H-he's ok..."

"He certainly sounded unharmed."

I put a hand on Skales Jr's shoulder. "And soon he'll be free from the Overlords control. Along with the other serpentine."

He smiled up at me and wrapped me in a hug. "Thank you Kai."

"No problem, kid." I smiled.  _I just hope I can keep the promise._

"We should keep moving, they will wonder where we are." Zane stated looking around a little.

I nodded. "Yeah, let's go."

It didn't take very long for us to reach Doomsday Comics. The building looked a lot different than I remembered.

We walked in and immediately were greeted.

Nya walked over to us. "I'm glad you guys are here."

"What exactly is going on?"  _Hopefully everyone is alright._

"I did tell you we found someone right?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, we brought him here so we weren't in the open for too long." She stated.

"I sense a familiar yet different presence." Zane cut in.

"He was locked away for a couple years." Nya turned. "Hey guys Kai's here!"

Moments later Jay ran over with a stack of comic books . "Look at all of these! They look like haven't been read in years!"

"Most of who's left is brainwashed."  _or too busy running around avoiding getting caught._

Cole's voice came from over the shelves. "Alright, watch your step, kid."

"Im practically your guys' age." Another voice laughed

I froze, recognizing the voice. _It can't be… I had to take a step back from what I saw._

Lloyd looked at me with a smile. "Hi, Kai… long time no see huh?"

"Y-you died… you were dead... "  _This is some sort of nightmare…. I remember that day. There was no way he survived…_

"Some stone soldiers found me when I was passed out and took me to the overlord. They locked me in a cell after that." The green ninja replied.

"You didn't look hard enough." Cole glared at me.

"I looked for months. There was no way he survived that crash."

"Obviously you were wrong, Kai!"

Nya put a hand on my shoulder. "He's back now right? Let's be happy he's safe."

"Yeah…"  _I guess it's possible…_

"I say we load up on comic books and get this kid to the dojo." Jay smiled, pointing at Lloyd.

 _Something seems off… hmm…_  "Yeah we should get going. Lloyd can lead the way, right Lloyd?"

"Um… I would but a lot has changed so-"

"It's in the same place as before. Plus its about time the green ninja lead."

Cole glared at me. "He was just broke out of a storage building, give the kid a break Kai."

I glanced at Lloyd for a moment, barely noticing a glimmer of purple in his eyes. "What the…"

Lloyd looked at me. "Maybe you should lead us Kai. After all, you were the one uncle chose to lead us."

Cole rolled his eyes.

"Well I'm sure your dad will be happy to see you." I started walking to the exit.

"Dad? But I thought he was left to die?" Lloyd sounded confused.

"He's alive… but I wouldn't expect the Overlord to know that." I smirked and shot fire at the ceiling, making the sprinklers turn on. 'Lloyd' jumped in surprise before melting into a grey cloud then to nothing.

"Heh, what do ya know, I was right."

The others looked at were the imposter had been standing. They all seemed shocked.

"And you three wanted to take it back to the dojo."

"How did you know it was a smoke shifter?" Nya asked.

"Besides bits of its memory not adding up, I saw its eyes flash purple like the Overlords." I explained.

"Were the sprinklers necessary?" Cole snapped.

"Absolutely."

Skales Jr hopped into the puddles that formed and Jay joined him.

"We should let Sensei know about this." Nya stated.

"Let's go then."

Zane looked at Jay. "You should put those books back, you wouldn't want to be stealing."

"Aw, but no one is even here!" Jay whined.

"He's right Jay, We'll come back another day." Nya smiled.

"Urg. Let's just go." Cole grumbled and pushed past me.

I shrugged. "I think this has been enough training, Let's go home."

The others nodded in agreement and we followed Cole back to the dojo. I explained what had happened after Sensei came back and he was very happy that everything worked out but decided it would be safer for us all to stay in the dojo for a couple days. We all relaxed and laughed the rest of the evening.

 _I'm glad I was there. If they had taken that thing to the dojo that could have been dangerous_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry again. I'm still having problems with my labtop and I'm looking into getting a new one really soon. Also, since things are going pretty slow in the story right now I'll probably skip ahead since I have some big plans that I've already written most of. I promise the net update wont be another 5 or so months. I hope the wait was worth it and have an amazing day/night!


End file.
